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Members of the MSBT subcommittee were asked whether they would like to support a lookback programme and consideration should be given to the ethical and legal implications of contacting recipients of Hepatitis C blood. All members voted in favour of a UK-wide approach.

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A press release from the Department of Health recorded that an ad hoc working party of experts was to be brought together to draw up guidance on the procedure for undertaking lookback and for counselling those identified as being at risk, as well as guidance on the treatment options available.

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Dr Williamson of the East Anglian Blood Transfusion Centre noted that it was much more difficult to obtain the cause of death of patients for the HCV lookback scheme and noted that it was a labour and time intensive process.

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Dr Dillon was instructed to produce draft material on counselling based on existing material used by the SNBTS.

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The announcement of an HCV lookback scheme was seen as rather sudden and a memo from Sue Knowles to Dr Lorna Williamson asked for further information on the HCV lookback scheme; "If anyone has gleaned any more than I have, please do share it!"

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In a formal publication of the HCV lookback report, it was reported that 31% of results could not be identified due to inability to access reports. 61% were known to be dead at the time of tracing.

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As noted in the meeting minutes of a regional transfusion directors meeting, it was noted that the need for greater staff resource and more resources generally was a great issue.

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The Hepatitis C lookback programme was expanded to include indeterminate test results.

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In a report published about HCV lookback in Northern Ireland, there were multiple issues highlighted including legal liability, lack of resources and difficulties in tracing hospital records.

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In a letter to Dr Edwards, Dr Vanessa Martlew stated that she had invited donors for further blood tests in connection with Dr Edwards' patient developing jaundice.

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Dr Edwards informed Dr Martlew that a patient had tested positive for Hepatitis B surface antigen and that he had received two transfusions dating back to December 1986. It also stated that his liver function was not deranged prior to the transfusion although his hepatitis status was not checked.

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A letter from Eric Jones stated that he would be wary of pursuing look back inquiries because he wondered whether the comparative benefit of such exercise outweighed the risk of patients taking proceedings against the National Blood Transfusion Service.

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Dr Lee stated in a letter to the legal adviser of the North Western Regional Health Authority that it would be very valuable to undertake a lookback exercise to find out whether patients had been issued blood contaminated with HCV but he was concerned that by seeking this information and consent it could lay them open to litigation.

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In a letter to EG Jones, Dr Lee stated that he was concerned that providing a patient with the information that he or she had received a potentially contaminated unit of blood would give them the necessary ammunition to take action against them on the grounds of product liability.

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A progress report on the Scottish HCV lookback exercise said that in summary the implementation process had been problematic.

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In a letter to Dr Frank Boulton, Dr Angela Robinson stated that due to the "BBC Panorama" programme "Bad Blood" the National Blood Service helpline had handled 10,000 public enquiries.

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Dr Ala stated that he had been under pressure to promote a lookback policy by the Scottish National BTS and at an ad hoc meeting Professors Tedder and Cash were in favour of lookback while several others were agnostic.

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A report on the outcome of the lookback exercise in England since 1995 stated that 4,432 recipients of 6,687 blood components were identified, and 61% (2717) of identified recipients were known to be dead at the time of tracing.

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Dr Kieran Morris sought the assistance of Dr Frank Jones to identify patients who may have received contaminated blood following two donors who came after a long interval and were found to be HCV antibody positive.

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Dr Cash in a letter to Dr Gunson stated that the question arose whether they should be doing anti-HCV tests on the relevant donation aliquots so that they could more readily locate "the offending donor" with a view to taking him/her off the panel.

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