OTTAWA -- A sweeping public inquiry into Canada's tainted blood scandal will
begin by September and deliver proposals on overhauling the national blood
system within a year, federal Health Minister Benoit Bouchard said
yesterday.
Mr. Bouchard made the announcement within hours of the official release of
an all-party report suggesting that the blood system was an administrative
nightmare that needed to be revamped from top to bottom to ensure a future
disaster would be avoided.
"I listened, I heard, and I learned that, for better or for worse, public
confidence in the blood system has been profoundly shaken," Mr. Bouchard
told reporters yesterday. "When that happens, we must act."
The Canadian Red Cross Society, the main player in the blood system, and the
Canadian Hemophilia Society, which represents consumers of blood products,
both welcomed the inquiry and promised to participate. The process cannot
begin, however, without the unanimous consent of the provinces and
territories.
"The current blood system requires major change," said Douglas Lindores,
secretary-general of the Red Cross. "We have come to the conclusion that
something more than goodwill is needed, and the system must be fixed."
CHS president David Page agreed, but stressed the inquiry process must be
set into motion immediately, and not be stalled by federal-provincial
bickering.
"Please, no more foot-dragging. Action is long overdue," he said.
By flip-flopping and agreeing to an inquiry he had resisted for months, Mr.
Bouchard may have diverted attention from an even more explosive element of
the scandal - a recommendation by the House of Commons subcommittee on
health issues that as many as 1.5 million Canadians who received blood
transfusions between 1980 and 1985 should be tested for
AIDS.
To date, 261 Canadians are known to have contracted the AIDS virus from
contaminated blood, and at least another 682 hemophiliacs were infected by
tainted blood products. But epidemiologists estimate that there are another
200 to 1,200 Canadian transfusion patients who are carrying the human
immuno-deficiency virus without knowing it, a situation described as a time
bomb.
"If I personally had a blood transfusion in that time, I would want to have
an HIV test done," said Stan Wilbee, chairman of the subcommittee, and
himself a physician.
"For peace of mind, for myself, for my family, any sexual partners,
whatever, I think anyone who got a blood transfusion in that period, 1980-
85, should get an AIDS test done," he said.
In addition to the "urgent" call to find HIV-infected Canadians, the
subcommittee called for a federal-provincial inquiry, provincial
compensation and increased federal compensation for victims of the blood
scandal, and greater federal control of the blood system.
Yesterday, Mr. Bouchard rejected out-of-hand the idea of increasing the
$120-million in federal humanitarian aid, and repeated his view that the
blood system has to become more efficient, and more centralized.
While he promised to act "quickly and efficiently" to find infected
transfusion patients, he refused to issue any formal recommendation on
testing.
That hedging angered victims of the tainted blood scandal, who complained
that lack of leadership has characterized the whole debacle from the
beginning.
"Ten years after people have been infected we're still waiting for health
ministers, provincial and federal, to say 'Be safe, get a test.' We
shouldn't have to wait for a public inquiry to hear that," said Jerald
Freise, head of HIV-T, a group representing infected blood transfusion
patients.
At their news conference yesterday morning, the members of the subcommittee
openly questioned the predominant role played by the Red Cross in the blood
system, and suggested it should be a key element of the inquiry.
In the current blood system, the Red Cross collects, purchases and
distributes all blood and blood products; provincial and territorial
governments finance and administer the system; the Canadian Blood Agency,
made up of territorial and provincial representatives, directs and co-
ordinates day-to-day policy; and the federal government plays a minor
regulatory role. The system has been criticized almost universally as
unresponsive, overly bureaucratic, and expensive.
"One of the big questions out there is: Should the Red Cross be the vehicle
for blood transfusion services?" the subcommittee's chairman Dr. Wilbee
said. "Maybe they're afraid of somebody invading their turf, but one of the
major purposes of the inquiry would be to determine: 'Is there a better way,
a faster way, a more efficient system?' "
Mr. Page of the hemophilia society welcomed those pointed questions, saying
that while the "Red Cross is motherhood to us, they have saved the lives of
all hemophiliacs over the past 40 years . . . the Red Cross is now a
$200-million business in Canada."
Mr. Lindores, secretary-general of the Red Cross, reacted angrily to that
kind of talk, saying "if anyone thinks that there is someone else who can do
it better, I welcome them to put forward the proposal . . .
"If someone feels that, somehow that the same system could be maintained
with the same professional competence, donor recruitment, scientific staff,
manufacturing staff, if that can be developed through another organization
like the Department of Health and Welfare, that's an option to put on the
table.
"But every indication, every poll from Canadians is that this is a function
they strongly support being in the hands of the Canadian Red Cross Society
and, quite frankly, we continue to play that role," Mr.
Lindores added.

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