4. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services: Update on the UK Inquiry on Infected Blood

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:43 pm on 13 March 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:43, 13 March 2018

Thank you for the comments and the two particular areas of questions. With regard to the Cardiff haemophilia centre and its practice, I reiterate what I said to both Angela Burns and Rhun ap Iorwerth: that any records and information that NHS Wales holds will be made available to the inquiry. There's no attempt to try and hide away from any of this, and it must be for the inquiry and individual stakeholders who will give their evidence to place that in front of the inquiry, and for the inquiry then to reach conclusions.

On the point about undiagnosed victims, given the length of time that would've elapsed from potential exposure, I would expect that it would be fairly unusual for people not to be symptomatic at this point and not to be diagnosed. You can't necessarily avoid the prospect, but given that we're talking about a specific community of people who will have had blood products, I would expect that people would be aware. If others do come forward, then we'll know, but there isn't a particular programme at this point to try and run through and look for undiagnosed victims. That's not a matter I've discussed with Mr Justice Langstaff. I actually think that, given what we know has happened and the number of people affected, we have a significant job of work to do already, and any lessons from this inquiry would equally apply to anyone who comes forward at a later date who may have been affected but undiagnosed from the scandal that took place in the 1970s and the 1980s.