Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2015-01-15
Topic: Health
Geoffrey Robinson (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful for that intervention. I was about to discuss Jim Dobbin, so my hon. Friend fortunately anticipates me. Jim was a good friend of mine for many years, and we had his memorial service yesterday, as she will know. He, alongside Peter Archer, Alf Morris and Paul Goggins, as well as others from the Government side of the House, was one of a series of outstanding campaigners that we have had on this issue. The fact that it is an all-party campaign enables us to get together to seek some resolution. This has been going on for an awfully long time and it has been very unsatisfactory, under all Governments. I must emphasise that all Governments are equally to blame, Labour and Tory Governments going back even to before Margaret Thatcher—I mention a name that will immediately resonate on both sides of the House As has been said, some of those who have been terribly affected have not wanted their names to be mentioned. Among those affected has been one of my constituents, Mr Joseph Peaty, whom I visited in his home only a few weeks ago. I believe he is here watching today’s debate and I would like to read to the House two brief extracts from his most recent letter to me. I am pleased to say that he is now the chairman of the Tainted Blood group, one of the campaigning groups that have been very effective on this matter. He wrote to me just reviewing the 30 years he has been infected. The House will be interested to know that he is now 49 years old and was first infected when he was 16. He has lived all his life in my Coventry constituency. He wrote to me recently—I got the letter only yesterday—to say the following: "I miss being able to contribute to a productive career...Perhaps because of my age when I was first affected, my hopes and expectations, that were much like anyone else’s (education, home, partner, children, career, travel, ‘make a difference to the world’) were taken from me. I am now just a shadow of the potential I once held, struggling to exist let alone live a purposeful, fulfilling life, worrying what the next viral complication will be." In his case there is a shadow overhanging him, after all these tragedies, and after the terrible suffering, pain and treatments that have had to be gone through; he faces the prospect, having been infected by both Hepatitis C and HIV and undergone all the treatments, that he could now have to deal with some transmutation into CJD—mad cow disease. We just do not know. It is as bad as that The tone of Joseph Peaty’s letter is much better than these extracts perhaps reveal. There is nothing self-pitying about Joseph Peaty. He is in every sense a man of immense dignity and tremendous forbearance in the face of suffering that was inflicted on him by the very organisation that was meant to be treating his ill health. He writes: "By supporting the haemophilia community in the pursuit of justice and financial recompense, I have learnt far more about the background to the introduction of pooled blood products than we were ever told prior to their administration. As a result I find the evidence overwhelming that the governments of the day knew of the infection risks, did not take adequate steps to mitigate onward transmission, failed to prevent non-consensual testing on patients, failed to inform patients of the risk, and put costs ahead of patient safety. The government were responsible for ensuring the safety of their citizens and failed disastrously in this primary duty." That is a terrible indictment, but it is true; it is factual, undeniable and incontestable in every respect. Joseph is referring to the entirety of his adult career since he was 16 years old. He lived in Coventry and that is the sum total of what he can point to in his life I do not wish to strike a discordant note when I mildly disagree with the right hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire—I congratulate him on securing the debate and on the way in which he introduced it—about the need for more reports. We do not need the Penrose report as we have already had the Archer report. All sorts of investigations have proved beyond doubt that this is the Government’s responsibility, that the extent of the tragedy is tremendous and that the provision we have made so far has been inadequate. That is the end of the story. What we now need is a resolution We are pleased that the Secretary of State attended the debate. Obviously, he is no longer in his place as he has other matters to which he needs to attend. I am also delighted to see my right hon. Friend the shadow Secretary of State in his place. We are all aware that the Prime Minister, in a moment of generosity, said that he would try to resolve this matter by the end of the year. I fear that he will not be able to do so—we know the pressures that Governments work under—and that is a great pity. The one useful thing that the coalition Government could do is to settle issues such as this. Indeed, when I raised the matter with the Deputy Prime Minister when he was deputising for the Prime Minister at Question Time, he said that he would take on the matter personally. I thought that we would at last have a more productive encounter between the two in the name of the sufferers in this tragedy. I hope that such a meeting can take place. If it cannot, the next Administration, whatever form they take—who knows what that will be—should take on the matter and settle it early. There will never be a good time. The only time is the earlier the better.