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Inquiry documents row: NHS England must explain

Written by Aaron Dennis, February 15, 2019

The Society would like to add its thanks to Jason Evans of the Factor 8 group for exposing this wholly unacceptable situation.

The Haemophilia Society calls on the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, to explain why his organisation failed to pass on a request from The Infected Blood Inquiry that no documents, files or paperwork of interest to its investigation be destroyed.

As a result of this “misinterpretation”, NHS Trusts, foundation trusts, health bodies and clinical commissioning groups in England were ignorant of this request. We believe that this failure to circulate the wishes of the Infected Blood Inquiry to these pivotal health bodies could mean that vital evidence may have been lost.

Mr Stevens must offer a credible explanation as to why this crucial directive was not passed on to these organisations. We believe it is only right that he takes responsibility for the inaction of NHS England on this matter.

This situation will only confirm the suspicion and mistrust that people affected and infected by the contaminated blood scandal have felt for many years.

The Society would like to add its thanks to Jason Evans of the Factor 8 group for exposing this wholly unacceptable situation.

We support Sir Brian Langstaff, chair of The Infected Blood Inquiry, in his forthright airing of this matter and his determination to put the victims of this scandal at the heart of his investigation.