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A Working Party on Human Antihaemophilic Globulin meeting determined "As the HAHG [human antihaemophilic globulin] concentrate prepared from plasma pools of up to 30-40 litres in volume apparently carried a risk of transmitting serum hepatitis, it was considered inadvisable...to increase the plasma pool volume much above this size".

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There was an upward shift in estimates of future needs, though slighter on this occasion. Current demand for Factor 8 was probably in the region of 60 million international units but, if clinical freedom continued, it could reach 100 million international units per annum.

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Alec Parrott wrote a letter to Susan Maunsell proposing a solution to the problem of securing an agreement acceptable to the workforce if asked to run a 24- hour shift system.

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Dr Maycock published "Present Sources of Materials for Treatment of Haemophilia and Potential Future Sources" showing the limits of fractionation capacity contributing to blood product shortfall; in order to meet the preferred number of units of cryoprecipitate and factor concentrates, capacity would have to increase by 800L a week.

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An editorial in The British Medical Journal entitled "Blood Donors and the Transfusion Service" argued that the blood services were ill-equipped to do the job as a modern transfusion service, suggesting that the "shortage" of blood and therefore plasma, allowing entry to the UK of the products of pharmaceutical companies, was not a real shortage, but a consequence of poor administration, organisation and underfunding.

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Andrew Mitchell wrote a letter to Malcolm Widdup noting the SHHD's proposal that the new blood products unit "should operate on the continuous flow principle and should be designed to a workload of 1,500 litres of plasma per week; but it will be capable of adaptation, without substantial structural alterations, to operate at levels up to 3,000 litres per week should this become necessary".

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The discussion in the Expert Group on the Treatment of Haemophilia - in particular its belief that "with the extension of home treatment joint surgery etc the current target may represent no more than _ to _ of the amount of Factor VIII which may be required in 5 years time or less" - was reported to the Central Committee of the National Blood Transfusion Service.

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The special allocations appear to have become subsumed as a part of the standard regional allocations, revised "in the usual way" to take account of cost increases.

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The Expert Report to the Infected Blood Inquiry: Public Health and Administration was produced, providing some evidence of the constrained financial position of the UK during the 1970s.

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A booklet entitled "Notes on Transfusion" was issued by the DHSS, SHHD and the Welsh Office.

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Dr Owen authorised the allocation of special finance to assist the National Health Service in becoming self-sufficient as soon as practicable.

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Dr Owen pointed in Parliament to the £500,000 of special financing which was to increase the existing production of Factor 8.

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Dr Mayne described that haemophilia patients in Northern Ireland who were treated with concentrate received limited quantities of concentrate from Elstree and Oxford.

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Planning was under way for a new building to constitute BPL at Elstree. A plasma supply target of 435,000 kilograms, including this element for cryoprecipitate production, was broadly maintained with a growing consensus that demand for Factor 8 would increase in the region to around 100 million international units.

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The UK was self-sufficient in meeting Factor 9 needs, and remained so until products sourced from British donor plasma ceased being used because of the threat of vCJD.

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Lord Owen described that there was no "reason for anybody who was involved in the Department during that period to hang their head in shame" about steps taken to achieve self-sufficiency.

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Plasmapheresis first began in the United Kingdom.

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Professor Dame Marcela Contreras described that the routine recovery of plasma from whole blood donations, especially increased by the separation of red blood cells and the use of SAG-M plasma, were still thought to be the methods of choice, with plasmapheresis making up for the deficit.

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Dr Biggs maintained that concentrates were the optimum treatment; that commercial product was available but, despite that, UK domestic production should increase; and that home treatment was desirable as a goal.

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Dr Maycock recognised a need for blood transfusion services to be "self-supporting".

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