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Haemophiliacs (Compensation)
1.29 pm
Mr. John Marshall (Hendon, South): The issue that we are now to discuss has been raised on a number of occasions, and has secured widespread support across both main political parties. The right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Morris) has been a doughty supporter of this cause, as indeed have the hon. Members for Leeds, East (Mr. Mudie) and for Wallasey (Ms Eagle). I have also been supported by my right hon. Friends the Members for Wealden (Sir G. Johnson Smith) and for Worthing (Sir T. Higgins) and my hon. Friend the Member for Exeter (Sir J. Hannam).
This is not the first time that I have raised the problem of haemophiliacs in the House. Indeed, the first time was in an Adjournment debate in October 1990. In parenthesis, I pay tribute to the tolerance, broad-mindedness and compassion of my right hon. Friend the Member for Chelsea (Sir N. Scott). At that time, I was his parliamentary private secretary, and the Whips' Office was not terribly amused at the thought of a PPS raising an issue that was not exactly complimentary of Government policy, but my right hon. Friend treated me, as all who know him would expect, with compassion, and I think that he had more than a mite of support for my cause.
My Adjournment debate was followed only a few weeks later by the Government's decision to compensate all haemophiliacs infected with human immunodeficiency virus. There are three reasons why I am still taking up the cause. First, it seems to me fundamentally wrong that individuals who suffer as a result of treatment given on the national health service should be ignored by society. If treatment creates a problem, exacerbates a situation or causes premature death or economic suffering, we as a society cannot, like the Pharisees of old, walk on the other side of the road, indifferent to the suffering that has been created.
Secondly, I once tutored a haemophiliac, and became well aware of the difficulties that haemophiliacs face. My student, who lived in Dunoon, suffered from internal bleeding. For a whole academic year, he was unable to make the journey from Dunoon to Glasgow university, so he attended not one lecture. He had to make do with a number of tutorials which I went down to Dunoon to give. As a result of not attending lectures, he came out second in the year. That showed how valuable lectures were, or it may have shown, as I tried to convince my friends with mixed success, how valuable my tuition was. Here was an individual facing great hardship and suffering, yet he worked hard to ensure that he passed his examinations, and made a positive contribution to society.
Thirdly, one of my constituents is Rev. Alan Tanner, chairman of the Haemophilia Society. He is much admired in Hendon and elsewhere for the courage that he has shown and his cheerfulness in the face of adversity. He is a good witness to his faith. The work of the Haemophilia Society is universally admired for what it does for a relatively small number of people in the United Kingdom.
Today is a happy coincidence. When Madam Speaker drew the numbers out of the ballot, she did not know that, later this afternoon the right hon. Member for Wythenshawe and I would hand in a petition at No. 10 Downing street which would demonstrate the depth of
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In addition, this afternoon there will be a lobby of Parliament by those who feel strongly about the matter. So it is a happy coincidence that we are having this debate today, and we ought to thank Madam Speaker for being clever enough to draw my number. As I have had three Adjournment debates this Session, perhaps I ought to buy a ticket for the national lottery this weekend.
The origin of the problem goes back to the 1970s, when there was a failure to screen imported blood products. My view is that that demonstrated negligence on the part of the Department of Health. It was known at that time that, in the United States, blood donors were paid for giving blood. Those who feel so hard up that they give pints of blood for money include drug addicts and others whose blood may well be infected. The Department of Health must have known of those risks.
In the 1960s or early 1970s, the Institute of Economic Affairs produced a pamphlet entitled "Paying for Blood". Those who reviewed that pamphlet in the serious press made the point that, in the United States, where people paid for blood, infected blood was given.
So we are discussing the issue in the 1990s because there was some negligence and complacency in the 1970s. If my right hon. Friend the Member for Wealden were here, he would make the point that, at the beginning of the 1980s, he and his wife made visits to the United States. His wife is a distinguished general practitioner. She heard expressed then some of the concerns about the safety of certain blood products. In 1986, heat treatment was introduced to end the risk of contaminated blood products in the United Kingdom. We can therefore rejoice that a similar disaster will not happen in future, but we must face the consequences of the indecision of the 1970s.
The justification for giving assistance to haemophiliacs with HIV was that they faced a suspended sentence of death. Indeed, many died fairly quickly of full-blown acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Others have lingered on, and, such are the advances in medical science, some may do so for many years to come. All who have lived have done so not knowing how long they would live. Many found it difficult to get a job, and certainly difficult to get a mortgage. Of course, in the case of hepatitis C, there is a difference, but it is only of degree.
Some of those infected with hepatitis C have already died. Others will die prematurely. There has been no official estimate. Indeed, in answer to a recent parliamentary question, the Department of Health admitted that it had made no estimate of the number of those infected with hepatitis C who would die in the next five years. In the absence of an official estimate, I give my hon. Friend the Minister my estimate. At least 700 will die prematurely. For many others, the quality of life will deteriorate dramatically, and they will suffer severe physical and economic hardship. Of the 3,000 or so infected, only about 600 will make a full recovery.
It is true that those with hepatitis C do not suffer the prejudice that is associated with HIV. Those who attended a meeting in No. 1 Parliament street, as I know the right hon. Member for Wythenshawe did, listened to the victims and their families. The hardship they suffer is very
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Victims lose self-respect when they lose their job. They feel that they ought to be the breadwinner, but they know that they can no longer be so. For all of them there is physical pain, emotional pain and hardship. Already more than 60 have died.
There is one particular family whose experience encapsulates the problem in its entirety. In that family, three brothers have died: two were haemophiliacs infected with HIV and one was a haemophiliac infected with hepatitis C. How can we say to the mother that it was right and proper that her two sons who were infected with HIV should be the subject of compensation, but that, in the case of her son who was infected with hepatitis C, not a penny should be paid in compensation?
One would need the intellectual casuistry of a Treasury mandarin to justify such an action. To say that one death is worthy of compensation, but that another is worth nothing at all is heartless and intellectually barren. It is not only grieving relatives who find the differential unacceptable and immoral--more than 270 Members of Parliament have signed early-day motion 4, asking for compensation to be paid. The vast bulk of decent people find the differential unacceptable.
Of course, we welcome the fact that the Department of Health is funding treatment to try to improve victims' quality of life. I also welcome the research into haemophilia that is taking place at the Royal Free hospital, which helps to give hope that, in future, haemophilia will cease to be the scourge that it has been, and that it will be eradicated.
When my hon. Friend the Minister was asked earlier this year whether he would provide help, he argued that the Department of Health budget should be used for patient care. Everyone accepts that the Secretary of State and his Ministers should try to protect the Department of Health budget--indeed, I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on his success in so doing--but the argument that help should be denied because the health budget must be protected is intellectually threadbare and immoral.
We all know that, when the Macfarlane Trust was set up, for which measure our right hon. Friend the Leader of the House was responsible, no one said that the money would have to come out of the Department of Health's budget. There is a thing called the contingency fund that can be used to bail out Departments in such circumstances; when, in 1990, compensation was paid to haemophiliacs with HIV, the contingency fund bailed out the Department of Health--the money did not come out of the Department's budget. My right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary should remember that, because he was the Secretary of State for Health at that time.
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