A special sub-committee of three doctors has been set up by a union branch to investigate the practices of De Tom Cleghorn, who refuses to use blood from black and Asian donors on hospital patients.
Cleghorn is director of the North London Blood Transfusion Centre, and the investigation is to be carried out by the North-West London Branch of the Medical Practitioners Union, part of ASTMS For nearly a year, blood donated by blacks and Asians in the arca has only been used for laboratory tests. Cleghorn, who is responsible for this racist practice, attempts to justify it on scientific grounds, But neither the Department of Health, nor the directors of the other 13 transfusion centres in Britain, consider that Cleg horn's policy is necessary.
SCIENTIFIC NONSENSE His first "medical' explanation, about the risk of passing on sickle cell disease, is universally held by experts to be absolutely incorrect. His other statements, about the increased hepatitis risk, are not confirmed by any one else's rescatch. but are based solely on figures which he claims to have collected other doctor.
Predictably, no further action has been taken up by the authorities apart from questions by two MPs to Dr David Owen, which were not answered, and a statement from the DHSS giving the very low figures of the incidence of hepatitis in this country as a result of blood trans The regular meetings of the blood transfusion directors are always "top secret (to quote from a doctor who works in transfusion)