Contaminated Blood and Blood Products
Debate between Nia Griffith and Tom Clarke(14 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Clarke
I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s intervention.
The kind of information that we have—and we have had interventions year after year—in terms of giving us the facts and the evidence, quite apart from what our constituents are drawing to our attention, was embraced in Lord Archer’s report, to which the motion refers. That report, which I very much welcome, led to Lord Morris of Manchester—both our noble Friends have done a commendable job in bringing these issues to our attention—attempting to deal with the problem through legislation. A Bill came to this House at the beginning of this year, but where did it go? Nowhere.
That brings me to what this issue means for our constituents. I spoke yesterday to a man in my constituency—I will not name him—who is now 36. He described the bizarre experiences of his case. He talked about the secrecy surrounding these matters. The excellent Yorkhill hospital in Glasgow has a very good reputation, but a large number of papers pertaining to it have simply gone missing. My constituent talked about the stigma of having hepatitis C; he had been told for many years that he did not have hepatitis A or B, and was lucky not to have AIDS. His doctor withheld information on his particular case for more than a year. He told me only yesterday what the real problems were—for example, the difficulty of getting life insurance and a mortgage for himself and his partner.
Mr Clarke
I am sorry, I do not have time.
My constituent also talked about the increased premium he faced in getting travel insurance. People are clearly being penalised again and again because they had the misfortune to find themselves with this condition of haemophilia and then found, as they approached the national health service, that their condition was made unacceptably worse.
I want to thank the organisations that have helped. With particular reference to Scotland, I want to thank Mr Philip Nolan, who spent several hours with my constituent and me, and who, it seems to me, has been in London almost every week for years, preaching to us the necessity to act.
My constituent referred yesterday to the position in Northern Ireland. I do not want to open up yet another party political debate, but the truth of the matter is that even with its economic difficulties, Ireland—if I said Northern Ireland yesterday, I should have said Ireland—has not abandoned its scheme.