Dr. David Owen And The NHS Infected Blood Scandal
I am writing this post, mainly using Dr. David Owen’s Wikipedia entry.
This paragraph describes Dr. Owen’s early days as a minister in Harold Wilson’s first government and the early days of Harold Wilson’s second government
From 1968 to 1970, Owen served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Navy in Harold Wilson’s first government. After Labour’s defeat in the 1970 general election, he became the party’s Junior Defence Spokesman until 1972 when he resigned with Roy Jenkins over Labour’s opposition to the European Community. On Labour’s return to government in March 1974, he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health before being promoted to Minister of State for Health in July 1974.
There is also this paragraph describing his involvement as Minister of State for Health in the NHS Infected Blood Scandal.
As Minister of State for Health he encouraged Britain to become “self-sufficient” in blood products such as Factor VIII, a recommendation also promoted by the World Health Organisation. This was principally due to the risk of Hepatitis infection from high-risk blood donors overseas who were often paid and from “skid-row” locations. David Owen has been outspoken that his policy of “Self-Sufficiency” was not put into place (although he was, himself, Minister of Health) and gave rise to the Tainted Blood Scandal which saw 5,000 British Haemophiliacs infected with Hepatitis C, 1,200 of those were also infected with HIV. It was later described in the House of Lords as “the worst treatment disaster in the history of the National Health Service”.
So why did Dr. Owen’s and the World Health Organisation’s view of making the UK “self-sufficient” in blood products such as Factor VIII not prevail?
Did Sir Brian Langstaff and his team go through minutes of cabinet meetings, when Dr. David Owen was Minister of State for Health?
Did Harold Wilson or the Chancellor; Denis Healey overrule David Owen’s view, as they needed what little money we had for other purposes?
I must admit, that if I had been in Dr. Owen’s position in 1974 and the Government were proposing to something against, my engineering experience, I would have resigned. Note that Dr. Owen did resign in 1972, over Labour’s opposition to the European Community.
If any doctors are reading this, who were qualified at the time, I’d like to hear their views.
Conclusion
One way to ascertain the truth, would be to charge Dr. Owen with something serious and led the Law decide.
The Anonymous Widower 
As much as I despised Wilson, I think you have to look to the governments of Callaghan and Thatcher along with those within the National Heath Service when seeking to criticise the individuals responsible for the criminal indifference and the collusion in trying to hide this scandal.Beyond that you have to ask why subsequent governments and the NHS itself actively chose to do nothing to provide redress to the people who suffered the consequences.https://haemophilia.org.uk/public-inquiry/the-infected-blood-inquiry/the-contaminated-blood-scandal/#:~:text=In%20the%201970s%20and%201980s,unaware%20of%20their%20own%20infection.
Comment by fammorris | May 21, 2024 |
Like the Post Office, Grenfell, Hillsborough there is an undercurrent of coverups in this country when the small people are involved and even more disturbing is that it doesn’t matter whose in power that any politician will stand up and call out what has happened.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | May 21, 2024 |