Monday, 30 December 2013

Cable questions Hunt about safety concerns over sale of PRUK

The government sold an 80% stake in Plasma Resources UK to Bain Capital back in June, despite warnings that this could jeopardise the UK’s supply of safe blood plasma.

Vince Cable has recently written to Jeremy Hunt at the Department of Health, saying:

Professor Holland and Dr Reynolds put to me the view that, with the involvement of a profit making company, there will now be increased risk of contamination. They fear this is a scandal waiting to happen and that it is NHS patients who will suffer in this worst of all possible outcomes. Obviously this is now after the event but I would nonetheless appreciate some personal reassurances from you on the security of the UK plasma supply following this sale.

It is indeed now after the event. If only politicians like Cable had submitted the public health implications of selling PRUK to real scrutiny before selling it. Dr Lucy Reynolds wrote extensively about the risks associated with selling PRUK. Lord David Owen wrote to David Cameron urging him to intervene to stop the sale.