§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions blood collected by the blood transfusions service and contaminated with hepatitis C has been sold to private sector hospitals.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe national health service does not sell blood. It has always been the policy of the NHS to meet independent hospitals' reasonable requests for blood on the basis of availability and clinical need. Independent hospitals will be included in the look-back exercise to trace, counsel and—if necessary—treat those who have been inadvertently infected with hepatitis C in this country, as I announced on 11 January 1995,Official Report, column 145.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has of hepatitis C infected blood volumes donated prior to current testing methods but during the period when other testing regimes were available to the blood transfusion service.
§ Mr. SackvilleTesting regimes were not available to the blood transfusion service until September 1991, when routine testing of all blood donations for antibodies to the hepatitis C virus was introduced. The blood transfusion service directors estimate that around 3,000 people may have been infected through blood transfusions prior to September 1991. The look-back exercise, which I announced on 11 January, will enable a more precise calculation to be made.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what level of expenditure has been committed to combat hepatitis C infection within the blood transfusion service from 1990 to the present.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe cost of measures to combat hepatitis C infection within the blood transfusion service is not separately identifiable. Since September 1991, all blood donations have been routinely tested for antibodies to the hepatitis C virus.