BMJ 1997;315:1559-1564 (13 December)

News

Canada creates new national blood service

David Spurgeon, Quebec 

Canada is to get a new national blood service as a result of the work of a commission of inquiry into a scandal that left thousands of Canadians infected with HIV and hepatitis C from transfusions.

The four year inquiry cost around $C57m (£25m; $40m) and embroiled governments, pharmaceutical companies, the Canadian Red Cross Society, and hundreds of individuals in bitter controversy. In the report the commissioner, Mr Justice Horace Krever, called for the new system to be independent and accountable to the public, with a mandate to put safety first.

The federal government responded immediately by creating the Blood Safety Council, headed by a haematologist, to advise on safety measures and to see that the commissioner's 50 recommendations are implemented.

Medical scientists had complained that the old system, run by the Red Cross, placed more emphasis on the advice of administrators than on that of scientists. . . . [Full text of this article]


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