VICTIMS of the infected blood scandal will receive compensation of at least £10 billion and an official apology from the PM.
This comes as the final report of the independent inquiry is published today.
Nearly 3,000 people died and an estimated 30,000 were infected due to failures in the 1970s and 1980s.
Blood transfusions and products such as plasma were not properly tracked and transmitted incurable diseases to NHS patients – often children – who were being treated for bleeding diseases such as haemophilia.
Ministers have already paid out more than £400 million in compensation to surviving victims and bereaved families.
This week they are expected to pledge billions more in cash to families torn apart by the scandal.
Never again can such a damaged community be marginalized and ignored
Kate Burt
Today’s inquiry report is expected to reveal how leading doctors and politicians failed to act on warnings about the safety of treatments and allowed the danger to continue for years.
The size of the compensation project could be a political headache for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, but he wants to honor a 2014 promise made to a dying electorate.
PM Rishi Sunak is due to address Parliament today to apologize.
Sir Keir Starmer said the Labor Party would also commit to compensation.
Kate Burt, head of the Haemophilia Society, said: “The findings of the Infected Blood Inquiry today will shock every person in the UK who cares about the truth and the accountability of our public servants.
“For decades, governments have ignored the pain and suffering of those affected by this scandal and refused to acknowledge the enormity of their failure.
“Many people died believing that no prime minister would ever take responsibility for what happened to them.
“Never again can such a damaged community be marginalized and ignored by the institutions created to support them.
“For the sake of the thousands of people who have died and those whose lives continue to be damaged by this terrible scandal, it is vital that the inquiry’s recommendations are put into practice.”
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BOYS’ SCHOOL DEVASTATED BY VIRUS
Ade Goodyear was one of around 120 haemophiliac children infected with HIV and hepatitis through contaminated blood products at specialist school Treloar College in the 1970s and 1980s.
Since then, at least 72 people have died – including four boys who were in the office with Ade when he was told he was HIV positive and had only two or three years to live, aged 15.
Many never turned 30.
Ade, from Alton, Hampshire, also lost two brothers in the scandal and told The Sun in 2021: “Every year at the Treloar reunion there are so many faces missing – and they shouldn’t.”
Steve Nicholls, 54, from Farnham, Surrey, left school in 1983 and was mourning his first classmate just a year later.
In the late 1980s, he heard about friends dying weekly.
“I was afraid the phone would ring, because you knew it would be about someone else who had passed away,” he said.
“We use the term Blood Brothers because we became like brothers at Treloar’s, and seeing your friends die so young is heartbreaking.
“Mental scars will never heal.”
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The independent inquiry was ordered by then-Prime Minister Theresa May in 2017.
It cost more than £130 million and interviewed hundreds of witnesses, including doctors, politicians, victims, families and scientists.
A victim infected with HIV and hepatitis when he was just 12 told The Sun: “We hope this report is the truth about the medical side of things, but it won’t be the end.
“We are still fighting for compensation and that will continue, and there will be things we will never know.”
Both viruses can take years or even decades to cause symptoms and many people don’t realize they have them – increasing the risk of missing vital treatment and passing them on to others.
GP Dr Zoe Williams said: “It’s really shocking to think that there are potentially many individuals out there who have hepatitis C due to the contaminated blood scandal but don’t know it.
“It is extremely important to raise awareness and ensure that anyone who may be at risk knows how to get tested for hepatitis C as well as HIV.
“Anyone who received a transfusion of blood, or other blood products, between 1970 and 1991 in the UK may be at risk and should be tested.”
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “This was a terrible tragedy that should never have happened.
“We are certain that justice needs to be done and quickly.
“We will continue to listen carefully to the community as we address this terrible scandal.”
WHAT IS THE INFECTED BLOOD SCANDAL?
The contaminated blood scandal has been described as one of the worst in the history of the NHS and stems from blood transfusions and blood-derived medicines used in the 1970s and 1980s.
These medical products were injected into patients, often children, who had blood diseases such as hemophilia, which disrupts clotting and can cause severe bleeding.
Unlike regular blood donations, plasma products such as Factor VIII were often sourced from the United States and elsewhere, and because donors could be paid to donate blood, some donations came from high-risk people such as prostitutes. and prisoners, who are more likely to donate blood. have blood diseases.
In some cases, tens of thousands of donations were mixed together to form a single batch, but all it took was one infected donor to contaminate an entire batch and infect patients.
At the time, the NHS had stopped paying donors for whole blood donations to reduce the risk, but we couldn’t produce enough in Britain, so they had to be imported.
As patients began to fall ill, it was later discovered that thousands of people had been infected with HIV and hepatitis through the blood of poorly tested donors.
More than 2,900 people have died as a result of the scandal and tens of thousands are believed to have been directly infected or contracted the virus from a relative or partner.
Activists say doctors and politicians ignored warnings about what would happen and then covered up their failures when patients began to fall ill.
Survivors and their families were entitled to £100,000 each in compensation in 2022 and more is expected after the full inquest is published on 20 May 2024.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
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