I am trying to find out if anyone has actually seen one of these patient information leaflets. According the Secretary Of State for Health Anne Milton all patients who may receive a transfusion should be given a leaflet by their hospital staff which is provided to them by the NHS Blood & Transplant (NHSBT). It indicates that patients should be told that transfusions should only be given if the benefits outweigh the risks, and they should be informed of alternatives to transfusion if these are appropriate or available. The infective risks of blood transfusion are clearly stated. The section on variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) specifically states:
'Although the risk of getting variant CJD is probably low from a single transfusion, the risk of any infection will increase with additional blood transfusions. Each year approximately 2 million units of blood are transfused in Engalnd, and there have been a handful of cases where patients are known to have become infected with vCJD from a blood transfusion'
I have never seen one of these leaflets and the quote above is an answer to questions raised in the House of Commons by worried patients. Has anyone come across one of these leaflets?