Subscribe to Search results

Dame Contreras told the Inquiry that with hindsight, testing could have started in July 1991 or earlier, once the second-generation tests were available.

Published on:

Dame Contreras gave evidence to the Inquiry that the Edgware North London Centre had a donor association which organised awards ceremonies every month to celebrate donors who had reached milestone numbers of donations.

Published on:

The North West Thames RTC experienced blood shortages, despite Professor Contreras stating the centre was collecting "more than anybody else per thousand population".

Published on:

The number of regular attenders at the North London RTC exceeded 2,500, and over 80% of these donors attended for donation once a fortnight.

Published on:

At the North London Blood Transfusion Centre, Edgware, the first unpaid volunteers began donating by plasmapheresis.

Published on:

Professor Dame Marcela Contreras told the Inquiry that transfusion centres did not regard military personnel as a high-risk group in the early 1980s.

Published on:

Dame Marcela Contreras advised that where GP records for the time were available, they may have included discharge letters which may have referred to transfusions, but equally may not.

Published on:

Plasmapheresis first began in the United Kingdom.

Published on:

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.

Published on:

Dr Napier said the Cardiff centre established a small locus for offering autologous transfusions but it had its constraints and was inflexible so the service did not continue for long because interest in it waned probably due to those constraints.

Published on:

A questionnaire asking donors if they had read the AIDS leaflet was expected to be introduced but was not made available by the Department of Health.

Published on:

Dr Tony Napier commented on the disadvantages of the system of regional autonomy for blood transfusion centres, stating that if the focus was on obtaining self-sufficiency in England and Wales, then accountability and funding discussions should have taken place centrally.

Published on:

The Cardiff RTC was accountable to the South Glamorgan Health Authority.

Published on:

Dr Tony Napier told the Inquiry that encouraging prisoners to donate was thought to help their rehabilitation.

Published on:

Dr George Galea said in oral evidence that ad-hoc lookback was being undertaken in late 1993 in Inverness. If a donor was found who had later tested positive for Hepatitis C, they would look back and see whether the blood taken was still in stock, whether it was transfused or sent to PFC.

Published on:

Dr George Galea, the director of Inverness and North of Scotland Blood Transfusion Service, recalled teaching medical students about the risks of transfusions and that "the safest blood is the blood that's not given."

Published on:

Dr Colin Entwistle, director of the Oxford Centre, did not consider the education of his colleagues on the use of blood to be part of his role.

Published on:

According to Dr Colin Entwistle's oral evidence, the haematologists in the Oxford region used to meet every three months or so, which provided a good opportunity for face-to-face discussions.

Published on:

Dr Colin Entwistle told the Inquiry that Oxford could have switched from providing plasma to the Blood Product Laboratory to producing cryoprecipitate in a matter of days.

Published on:

Dr Colin Entwistle was aware that the question of infection with the AIDS virus was associated with transmission via blood in some form.

Published on: