23rd May 2005
Haemophilia Foundation of New Zealand
Ministry of Health excludes key evidence from Bad Blood compensation decision
The Ministry of Health has ignored a Haemophilia Foundation request to be included in a Working Party tasked with
providing key evidence in a fact-finding exercise to determine whether people with haemophilia and hepatitis C should be
compensated.
Last month, officials at the Ministry of Health agreed to consider a submission from the Haemophilia Foundation of New
Zealand (HFNZ). The submission outlined the case for compensation and proposed a settlement which would provide support
for those affected and their families.
On receiving the submission, the Ministry of Health immediately set up a Working Party to establish the facts and
present them to Crown Law. However, the Director-General of Health, Dr Karen Poutasi, has ignored the Haemophilia
Foundation’s request to be included in the process, even though the Foundation holds specialist and detailed knowledge
of the issue in New Zealand and overseas.
Steve Waring, who has haemophilia and hepatitis C, said, “It alarms me that the Ministry is happy to make any decision
based on only partial information, particularly one that affects so many New Zealand families so dramatically. HFNZ has
access to first-hand, up-to-the-minute information about the health status and related circumstances of our members, the
bulk of which is not known elsewhere. We also have a great deal of documentation which could shed some light on how this
disaster happened, and I would expect the Ministry of Health to be eager to use that understanding to right wrongs and
avert future disasters.
“Ultimately, if the Ministry’s verdict does not include the expert knowledge that HFNZ can contribute, our members are
unlikely to feel that their issues have been considered fairly and thoroughly. In that instance, individual litigation
cases will have to continue and this exercise will not only have been a waste of public resources, but will have put a
huge dent in our members’ already dwindling confidence in the Government to do the right thing.
HFNZ President Dave McCone added, “Quite clearly, this is simply another public relations exercise. The Ministry’s
objective is to humor us, rather than to seriously consider the catastrophic impact this has had on so many Kiwi
families and individuals. Is the Government hoping that if they hold us off for long enough the infected people will die
quietly and, with them, their claims for justice?”
The Ministry of Health is hoping to reach a final decision in August this year.
ENDS