EXPERTS are to investigate what action can be taken to carry out the single recommendation of a £12m public inquiry.
The final report of the Penrose Inquiry into the infection of NHS patients with contaminated blood was greeted with anger after it made just one suggestion - that all patients who received a blood transfusion before September 1991, and have not yet been tested, should be screened for Hepatitis C.
Now a report published by Health Protection Scotland says "a lot of work" has already been done to identify this group of patients.
The efforts made to date include a "look back" exercise to trace people who were given contaminated blood, as well as a public awareness campaign and the dissemination of educational material to GPs.
The Health Protection Scotland bulletin says "the vast majority of people in this category will already have been tested and it is expected that there are very few undiagnosed cases."
However, a short life working group is being set up, in light of the Penrose Inquiry report, "to identify whether or not any further national or centralised action can be taken to further identify individuals who may benefit from testing."
Dr Catherine Calderwood, Chief Medical Officer, has already issued a letter to health boards saying if patients ring their GP and say they had a blood transfusion before 1991 and want to be tested the surgery should carry out the test. Anyone who is found to be infected should then be referred onto specialist services as usual.
The Penrose Inquiry was ordered by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon when she was Health Secretary and investigated how patients were infected with Hepatitis C and HIV in the 1970s and 1980s. Haemophilia sufferers were particularly vulnerable as they were given treatments made by combining blood donations from multiple blood donors, including those carrying the viruses.
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