Hepatitis C test results kept secret

COMPLAINTS that doctors knew NHS patients had become infected with hepatitis C for years before they were told of the virus are being investigated by the General Medical Council.

The GMC, which is responsible for striking off doctors for malpractice, is looking into procedures in which patients were secretly tested after contracting the virus in the early 1980s.

It is also alleged that patients did not give their consent for the hepatitis C tests and were unaware that they were being carried out.

There are believed to be about 365 haemophiliacs still alive who were infected with hepatitis C through treatment on the NHS in Scotland, and a further 800 surviving patients infected though blood transfusions and tissue transfer. The GMC investigation is also likely to look into procedures for patients who became infected with HIV, as well as asking whether counselling services were made available.

A spokesman for the GMC said: "We have received complaints with regards to the treatment of patients with hepatitis C and we are looking into the actions of doctors responsible for the treatment of blood-borne diseases.

"We have taken in the substance of the complaint and will be looking at all the issues surrounding it, but as yet no decision has been made.

"We do have set guidelines, put in place a few years ago, that have to be followed. These have changed a lot since the 80s and we would be looking at the guidelines and standards at the time of treatment."

The GMC states that health professionals "must obtain consent before testing for a serious communicable disease".

The guidelines continue: "Some conditions, such as HIV, have serious social and financial, as well as medical, implications. In such cases, you must make sure that the patient is given appropriate information about the implications of the test and appropriate time to consider and discuss them."

Andrew Gunn, 28, contracted HIV as well as hepatitis C in the 1980s through NHS blood products when he was being treated for haemophilia at Yorkhill Hospital, in Glasgow.

Mr Gunn said: "The same situation seems to apply right across the country, with haemophiliacs being tested without their consent.

"What seems to have happened is that people were tested and then were not told the result for years. In my case, my mother was not told that I had hepatitis C until 1994, when I was 19 years old, but I have found out that I was first tested for it around 1985 or 1986. And although I was told that I had HIV a few years before the doctors told us about the hepatitis C, they had still known about this for some time. It seems that it was hospital policy not to tell people, and this appears to have happened en masse.

"I was probably infected when I was about five or six years old, but by not telling me that I was infected, other people could have been put at risk, for example my family or teachers at school if I had a nose bleed."

Phyllis Macleod, 55, contracted hepatitis C during a hysterectomy in 1979 but was not told she had the virus until more than 20 years later. She said: "I was tested without my knowledge and without my consent, and was not offered any counselling when I was told I had hepatitis C.

"I went to see a consultant at Inverclyde in 2000 because I had broken veins in my neck. Three weeks later, I went back and he asked me if I had ever had a blood transfusion and I said that I had one when I had the hysterectomy. Then I was told that I had hepatitis C.

"At the time I had not even heard of hepatitis C and had to go to the public library to find out information about it ."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said it would be inappropriate to comment on an investigation being carried out by a body such as the GMC.

A report prepared by Detective Superintendent Stephen Heath, of Strathclyde Police, looking into complaints that hundreds of haemophiliacs contracted hepatitis C from infected NHS blood products, was handed in to officials at the Crown Office last month.

Prosecutors are currently deciding whether there should be a full investigation into the matter and, if so, the extent of the investigation which could lead to the questioning of doctors and health service officials.

The Executive has stated it is willing to pay £20,000 to people who contracted hepatitis C on the NHS, with a further £25,000 if they have developed chronic conditions such as cirrhosis or cancer of the liver.

However, it is unclear whether such payments are a devolved matter and even if the Executive was to make them, Westminster could "claw back" the money with reductions in social security benefits.