26 January 2023: Closing Statements, Nicola Leahey (unrepresented person)

Nicola Leahey has been a consistent attender at the public hearings of the Inquiry. With a background as a professional auditor in the NHS, her specialist and informed personal perspective was eagerly anticipated by her fellow regular on-site core participants.

 

She called her closing statement “Blood is the River of Life”. Nicola was infected by a blood transfusion in 1975, but only found out in 2009. She endured the horrors of the virus and its treatments, thinking she was alone as a victim until discovering the other infected and affected people at the Inquiry. The community has been a “life saver”. She noted how so many involved with the Inquiry as part of their job have had a life of relative security and financial certainty. This has not been the case for the majority of infected and affected individuals and families. The statistics are backed up by real peoples’ experiences. This has been “a multi-system failure” which has been allowed to “fester”.

 

The first set of closing statement recommendations began with one related to communication. Nicola recognised the advances in electronic systems, and this should be applied to records and information sharing. The second recommendation was for a patient passport for Hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV patients. Thirdly, it was recommended that there should be support for a “freedom to speak up” initiative. Fourth, it is recommended that clear policies need to be established. It was noted that there was a big difference between a policy and a guideline. Fifth, creating a flowchart to detail the process for seeking advice, support, and application systems for accessing assistance. Clinicians clearly don’t know what to advise people.

 

The next set of recommendations related to education. People need to be trained to treat people as individuals and how the patient is the expert on their own body. Medical professional need better training on how to speak to people. They need to know how to encourage patients to ask questions, how to ensure adequate record keeping, documenting consent, properly recording deaths, and learning from mistakes.

 

The final set of recommendations related to support. There needs to be a universally agreed policy for support arrangements and not a “postcode lottery”. This should establish the fact of patients having ongoing needs even after they may have been told they have “cleared” the virus (… or have they?) This includes regular blood tests, ultrasound scans, and fibroscans. There should also be secure funding for the support organisations who have done such wonderful work in helping people before and since the Inquiry. Nicola also wanted to see the whole nation tested for HCV. She also wanted to see the establishment of the arms-length body to manage the compensation scheme. It was noted that there is so little coming from Government about these long outstanding Francis Report recommendations. There need to be another round of interim payments to include those who have so far not received anything. There should be a robust system for administering and honouring the support commitments. And the groups of people affected must be expanded to include self-clearers, bereaved parents, bereaved children, and those excluded due to the cut-off dates.

 

A number of questions were posed after her recommendations had been set out in summary fashion. The first was, “What next?” There needs to be a swift timetable for implementing the Inquiry recommendations, with regular progress reports. “Will the Inquiry report be given to core participants before it goes to the press and the general public?” was a direct question to the Inquiry. Then there was a question about the social side of the campaigning activity and the Inquiry attendance, “How can we keep in touch?”

 

Nicola finished on a positive note. She acknowledged the Chair’s compassionate, respectful and dignified manner in Chairing the Inquiry. There was a humorous moment when the recognised behaviour of Sir Brian was noted in the taking off of his facemask, likely to ask a clever question. Thanks were extended to the entire Inquiry team, in particular Catherine Nalty for the opportunities available from the Update Meetings, and Jenni Richards with the rest of the legal team for having had to deal with so much harrowing evidence. Finally, it was the turn of Inquiry friends and family to be thanked for the support received. Nicola specifically recognised those who had died before the Inquiry was in a position to report its findings. A closing, “Thank you”, elicited a standing ovation.

 

The Chair noted what could have been a derogatory description of those attending as, “You lot”. Yet from Nicola it was a term full of affection.