- Victims of Britain’s infected blood scandal will receive final compensation this year.
- There have been previous reports of HIV and hepatitis infections from patients exposed to contaminated blood products from the 1970s to the early 1990s.
- Chancellor Rishi Sunak has apologized for the NHS’s “decades of moral failure”.
Victims of Britain’s infected blood scandal, which left tens of thousands infected through contaminated blood or blood products supplied by the public health service, will start receiving final compensation payments this year, the government said on Tuesday.
A report found that from the 1970s to the early 1990s, public servants and doctors exposed patients to unacceptable risks by transfusing them with blood or blood products contaminated with HIV or hepatitis.
The scandal is considered the worst disaster in the history of Britain’s state-run National Health Service since its establishment in 1948. Apologize.
Report reveals UK government’s ‘catalogue of failures’ in infected blood scandal that killed thousands
According to reports, successive British governments have refused to admit wrongdoing and tried to cover up the scandal, in which an estimated 3,000 people died after receiving contaminated blood or blood products. In total, about 30,000 people were infected with HIV or hepatitis C, a liver infection, during this period, the report said.
Infected blood campaigners gather in Parliament Square, London, to react ahead of the release of the final report on the scandal on May 19, 2024. It said final reimbursements for blood or blood products provided by public health services will begin this year. (Aaron Jon/PA via Associated Press)
Cabinet Office minister John Glenn told lawmakers on Tuesday he recognized “time is of the essence” and that victims most urgently in need of payment would receive further interim compensation of 210,000 pounds ($267,000) within 90 days, Relief agencies will be set up later.
He also said that friends and family members who care for the infected person are also eligible to claim compensation.
The authority made the first interim payment of £100,000 to each survivor and bereaved partner in 2022. Glenn did not confirm the total cost of the compensation package, but it was reported to be more than 10 billion pounds ($12.7 billion).
But Des Collins, a lawyer representing dozens of victims, said many families of the deceased have so far not received any payments and have no information on how to claim interim payments promised to estates.
Activists have been working for decades to expose official errors and secure government compensation. The inquiry, which was eventually approved in 2017, has examined the evidence of more than 5,000 witnesses and more than 100,000 documents over the past four years.
Many affected people have hemophilia, a disease that affects the blood’s ability to clot. In the 1970s, patients received a new treatment from the United States that contained plasma from high-risk donors, including prison inmates, who were paid to donate blood.
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Because manufacturers of treatments mix thousands of donated plasma, an infected donor could jeopardize the entire batch.
The report said approximately 1,250 patients with bleeding disorders, including 380 children, were infected with HIV-contaminated blood products. Three-quarters of them have died. As many as 5,000 people receiving blood products develop chronic hepatitis C.
An estimated 26,800 people also became infected with hepatitis C after receiving blood transfusions, often in hospitals after childbirth, surgery or accidents, the report said.
The disaster could have been largely avoided if officials had taken steps to address the known risks associated with blood transfusions or the use of blood products, the report concluded, adding that the UK had failed to implement rigorous screening of blood products and donors. lags behind many developed countries.
The inquiry added that a culture of concealment and defensiveness within the government and health sector exacerbated the harm caused.
