Lord Owen alleges a 'cover-up' over 1,757 blood deaths

Published on Thursday 12 July 2007 00:30

EVIDENCE relating to how thousands of British people contracted deadly diseases from contaminated blood imports was covered up by government officials, a former health minister alleged yesterday.

Lord Owen, a Labour health minister between 1974 and 1976 at the height of the blood scandal, made the claim to an independent inquiry in London.

The crossbench peer said he had fought for nearly 10 years to have his ministerial papers released to him by the Department of Health - only to be told most of them had been pulped.

A former doctor, Lord Owen said he found this alleged cover- up "extraordinary" and suggested the shredding was instigated to prevent legal action by victims who were infected by HIV and Hepatitis C.

"The issues we were dealing with were extremely important and you suddenly find that during a 10-year role ministerial papers can be pulped," he told a Westminster room packed with victims and their relatives.

He added that while he was "very against" conspiracy theories, "the more you look at this, the more you look at the question in France [where there was a major scandal over the use of contaminated blood for transfusions], the more you begin to see people who were fearful of a legal process going on in this country.

"I think at long last when the government announced, under pressure from Lord Archer and others, they knew all along this took place, there was an official who did this on his own and I think we should know who he is and he should give evidence."

Among the documents released to the inquiry was one from February 1976 which shows officials warned that the blood carried a "higher hepatitis risk".

The inquiry heard that in the early to mid-1970s it was "well known" within Whitehall, the haemophiliac community and doctors that there were problems with contaminated blood.

"It's always a difficult question for ministers," Lord Owen said. "Do you reveal a risk or do you get on with trying to reduce the risk. I chose to try to reduce the risk."

There were fears that not enough blood could be obtained domestically through donations, so ministers reverted to importing the blood.

Lord Owen had pledged to make Britain "self-sufficient" in blood supplies to stop the need for importing plasma, but plans were shelved after he left office.

"There was always this worry that we were not going to be able to get quite enough donations."

The investigation is examining the deaths of 1,757 haemophiliacs as a result of exposure to the viruses, dubbed "the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS".

Many more are terminally ill after contracting HIV and/or hepatitis C in the tragedy.

Lord Owen said he feared for too many; it was too late to ever get "closure".

Another witness to the inquiry was Kelly Duda, an American documentary maker who exposed how much of the contaminated "Factor 8" blood came from so-called "skid row donors" from Arkansas prison.

He urged the inquiry to call Bill Clinton as a witness, as he had been governor of the state where the controversial prison programme was restarted.

Mr Duda warned that pharmaceutical companies in the United States were considering going back to prisons to "harvest" more blood, without learning the lessons from past mistakes.

He added that the inquiry should try to secure all batch numbers of the blood imported from the US so that haemophiliacs could find out whether their blood had come from the contaminated prison batches.

PRESSURE STILL ON FOR FULL PUBLIC INQUIRY

THE ARCHER Inquiry into contaminated blood has provided some comfort for victims but will have no legal status in British law.

However, it has publicised the plight of many of the victims, including Robert Mackie, who, as The Scotsman has reported, was infected with HIV but not told of his condition for years after being treated for haemophilia at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

His case forced the SNP to renew its pledge to hold a public inquiry into the scandal in Scotland. This would have more teeth than Lord Archer's inquiry, which is an independent one, driven by anonymous donations.

The Scottish inquiry would be able to subpoena witnesses, including senior health professionals, who have so far rejected demands to appear before Lord Archer.

There are hopes that Westminster will eventually pledge a full official inquiry.

Meanwhile, separate legal action is being considered against the pharmaceutical companies involved.