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Thu 09 Sep 2000Rises in blood charges defendedThe price charged by the Blood Transfusion Service Board for units of whole blood increased at more than double the rate of inflation in the 1970s and 1980s, the tribunal was told.The price which hospitals were charged for blood increased by 1,387 per cent between 1970 and 1989, while the consumer price index rose by 655 per cent over the same period, said Mr Ian Brennan SC, for the Department of Health.