Women infected by hepatitis C vote overwhelmingly to reject tribunal

POSITIVE Action, a support group for women infected with hepatitis C, has voted not to submit applications to the Government appointed tribunal set up to deal with claims from people infected as a result of receiving contaminated blood products.

At a meeting in Liberty Hall more than 400 women voted to reject the tribunal "as flawed and unfair".

The chairwoman of the group Ms Jane O'Brien, said that the vote was all but unanimous, with Just one spoilt vote. A woman wrote on it My form has been submitted. My case is on a specific date. I'm sorry now.

Ms O'Brien said that it was a matter for women who had already submitted applications to decide individually whether they would withdraw them. The tribunal has already given a priority hearing for two terminally ill women, one of whom was awarded £50,000 and the second a smaller compensation amount.

The tribunal, which has been in operation since December, sent out application forms to all affected women. It is reported to have received hundreds of completed forms following recent advertisements in the media, but Ms O'Brien questioned this estimate.

Some 400 writs have been lodged with the High Court against the Minister for Health and the Blood Transfusion Service Board in connection with hepatitis C.

"Women are determined a tribunal must give them equal justice, when compared to Court, for the horrible wrong they are suffering and will continue to suffer," Ms O'Brien said.

"They will not settle for half measures. The Department of Health has described this tribunal as a benevolent institution, but women are clear they want justice and rights and not charity for the wrong they have suffered."

Positive Action supports women infected with hepatitis C from Anti D immunoglobulin, which is given to women with rhesus negative blood after they have given birth to a rhesus positive child.

Ms O'Brien said the tribunal would be acceptable only if it were substantially altered to hear individual women, to allow for medical oral evidence, to compel witnesses to attend, to include provisional awards and to allow for a contract between the individual and the State on acceptance of a provisional award.

"The Minister for Health has tried to woo women to this tribunal with the promise of quick money. But for women this tribunal will only be acceptable if it acknowledges that the victims have rights," she, added.

The Fianna Fail spokeswoman on health, Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn, is to raise the issue in the Dail during Question Time on Thursday. She said last night that if the Minister had "set up the tribunal properly everybody would be happy. Now nobody is happy with it.

She accused the Minister of "making a great play" about confidentiality and privacy. The reality is, she said, that a woman who brought a test case to courts to assess what level of compensation would be awarded, could not use a pseudonym. A lot of women had not told their employers because they feared the consequences, Mrs Geoghegan Quinn said.

There were a number of problems. "The awards for the two cases we know about are less than £50,000, despite the fact that these women's lives are in danger. That alone says something about the tribunal."

Mrs Geoghegan Quinn said she would be asking how many women had applied to the tribunal and how many, have since withdrawn their applications.

Neither the Minister, Mr Noonan, nor the Department of Health could be contacted for comment last night.