PEN.012.0284
Royal Hospital for Sick Children
Dalnair Street
Yorkhill
GLASGOW, G3 SSJ
Switchboard: 0141 201 0000
www.show.scot.nhs.uk/yorkhill
Haematology/Oncology Department- Schiehallion Ward and Day Care Unit
Schiehallion Ward:
0141201 0317/0321
Schiehallion Day Care:
0141 201 9301/9302
Dr Murphy & Dr Sastry's Secretary: 0141 201 0392
HaemophiliaNurse: 0141201 9305
Dr Gibson's Secretary: 0141 201 0395
Dr Chalmers & Dr Ronghe's Secretary: 0141 201 0396
BG/AMcV
22 April201l
RESPONSE TO INCONSISTENCY BETWEEN WITNESS STATEMENT FOR PENROSE
ENQUIRY PROVIDED BY DR BRENDA E S GIBSON, CONSULTANT PAEDIATRIC
HAEMATOLOGIST, ROYAL HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN, GLASGOW (8 NOV 2010)
AND NOTE OF HAEMOPHILIA DIRECTORS AND SNBTS REPRESENTATIVES ON
29 NOVEMBER 1984 IN ST ANDREW'S HoUSE
I have been asked to explain a statement in my Witness Statement which is
inconsistent with the Note of a Meeting of Haemophilia Directors and SNBTS
Representatives on 29 November 1984.
1984 is 27 years ago and I have little or no recollection of any meetings or other
events from that time period. My Witness Statement is as accurate and honest as the
passage of time allows. It is true that I was appointed Consultant Paediatric
Haematologist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow in July 1984. For
the first four years after my appointment my involvement with haemophilia care was
related mainly to emergency out of hours cover as the consultant on calL
Responsibility for the haemophilia service lay with Professor Ian Hann who was
Lead Clinician for Haemophilia and Director of the Haemophilia Unit. I assumed
responsibility in August 1988 when Professor Hann left his post (August 1988 - date
supplied by Greater Glasgow Health Board) and I became Director of the
Haemophilia Unit.
PEN.012.0285
My Witness Statement says that I did not attend any meetings of Haemophilia
Directors, either Scottish or UK, or meetings of SNBTS Directors either as a trainee
or as a consultant prior to 1988. When I made this statement I believed it to be
accurate and true, but accept that it was based on the fact that I was not the
Haemophilia Director until 1988 and would not have expected to have attended
meetings of Haemophilia Directors and SNBTS prior to this date. I can only assume
that Professor Hann was not able to attend that meeting in 1984 and that I went on his
behalf. I note that I reported at the meeting the anxiety of parents of boys with
haemophilia and the incidence of HTLV antibody positivity amongst them. It would
be standard practice for me to have reported back to Professor Hann any important
discussion from that meeting and I would expect that, as Director, he would have
received a copy of the Minute, but this is based on assumed practice rather than
memory.
I would conclude by stating that the inconsistency was not due to any intention to
deceive or provide false information, but arose solely from statements reflecting what
one assumed happened, because the passage of time precludes any accurate
recollection. I think that this highlights the futility of an enquiry of events almost
three decades previously.
Signed:
DR BRENDA E S GIBSON
Date:
..................................................... .
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