Infected blood report on worst catastrophe in NHS historical past will ‘shock’ nation
Campaigners have warned a long-awaited report into the contaminated blood scandal will shock the nation as a top minister admitted victims have had to wait “far too long” for justice.
The official probe into the scandal – dubbed the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history – will publish its final report today after a decades-long fight by campaigners. More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products between the 1970s and 1990s.
Some 3,000 people with haemophilia and other disorders are believed to have died as a result, while thousands have been left with life-long health issues, as well as suffering survivors’ guilt and grief. The compensation bill is expected to reach £10billion for victims and their families whose lives have been blighted by the scandal.
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Kate Burt, Chief Executive of the Haemophilia Society, said: “For decades, governments have dismissed the pain and suffering of those impacted by this scandal and refused to acknowledge the enormity of their failure.
“Far too many people have died believing that no Prime Minister would ever take responsibility for what happened to them. The Infected Blood Inquiry’s findings today will shock every single person in the UK who cares about truth and accountability from our public servants.”
Amanda Patton’s brother Simon Cummings was infected with HIV through his treatment for haemophilia and died in 1996, aged 38.
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Ms Patton, a garden designer from Surrey, said: “He phoned me in September of that year and he said: ‘I’ve got good news and bad news, the bad news is that they’ve given me between two and six months (to live), but the good news is I don’t have to go to the dentist again.’ It was just typical of him, absolutely typical.”
She added: “People say that time heals, but it doesn’t – what happened to him was so awful, he would have been 65… all those years he was denied, it’s all the ‘might have beens’ as well as everything else.”
Martin Reid, from Insch, Aberdeenshire, was infected with Hepatitis C as a child while receiving treatment for his haemophilia. His Hepatitis was cleared in 2011 after treatment but he still suffers the lasting effects from the virus, including anxiety and depression.
“My parents were both distraught about it – they felt a lot of guilt about it, I guess as any parent would,” he said. “Through every strand of life, it’s there with you, it lives with you.
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“Even when I cleared Hepatitis C, there are so many things that are still with me, and will be with me until the day I die that are directly linked or have been caused by what has happened. In terms of my long term health, I feel very fatigued a lot, I suffer from insomnia, a lot of the health issues are mental health-related – I suffer from extreme anxiety.”
Solicitors working for ex-pupils at Lord Mayor Treloar College, a specialist school for disabled young people who were given contaminated blood products, expect the case could be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service. Out of 122 boys treated at the Hampshire boarding school for haemophilia between 1970 and 1985, 75 have since died.
Des Collins, senior partner at Collins Solicitors, told the Telegraph “on the balance of probabilities” he thinks there will be a referral to the CPS for at least one criminal prosecution.
Who was affected by the infected blood scandal?
Patients were given contaminated blood transfusions following childbirth, emergency surgeries and other procedures between 1970 and 1991.
Donations of blood were not routinely screened before this, which meant people were at risk of contracting Hepatitis C and HIV.
Hepatitis C is a virus that affects the liver, which is usually spread through blood contact, such as sharing unsterilised needles.
It can be cured but if left untreated, it can cause scarring on the liver known as cirrhosis. In the most severe cases, this can lead to liver failure or liver cancer.
Separately, infected blood products were also given to people with haemophilia, an inherited condition where the blood doesn’t clot properly.
Most haemophiliacs have a shortage of the protein that enables blood to clot, known as Factor VIII.
A treatment was developed in the 1970s to replace the missing clotting agent, using donated human blood plasma.
At the time, the UK was struggling to meet demand so imported supplies from the US.
These were often high-risk donors in prisons or drug users.
Manufacturers also pooled plasma from tens of thousands of people, which meant just one contaminated sample could infect an entire batch.
Campaigners gathered last night for a solemn vigil in Westminster, where a minute’s silence was held. Rishi Sunak is expected to deliver an official apology after the publication of the long-awaited report by Sir Brian Langstaff today.
Cabinet Minister Grant Shapps told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “I think it has taken far too long to get to this. A problem that has gone on for decades.” He added: “The idea it’s taken all of this time to get to the truth, I think, is heartbreaking.”
Details of the compensation package are due to come as early as Tuesday. It will reportedly involve “life-changing” sums of money for the worst-affected victims, with payouts for those infected with contaminated blood but also their siblings, children and parents. It will be subject to a five-week consultation.
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt suggested he would rubber stamp the package after making a promise to campaigner Mike Dorricott in 2014. Mr Dorricott, who was 46 at the time, had learned just weeks before he met Mr Hunt that he had terminal liver cancer, linked to the hepatitis C he contracted as a teenager from contaminated blood products. He died a few months later.
Mr Hunt said the compensation for those affected by the scandal will be “thanks to Mike more than anyone else”, adding: “It’s one of the saddest things that he’s not around to see it.”
The Chancellor told the Sunday Times: “This is the worst scandal of my lifetime. I think that the families have got every right to be incredibly angry that generations of politicians, including me when I was Health Secretary, have not acted fast enough to address the scandal. Rishi Sunak and I both believe the delays have gone on too long and now is the time for justice.”
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said victims should be assured that Labour would stand it if they win the election. He told the BBC the Government was finally doing the right thing, adding: “They will have our wholehearted support in that and we will make sure that victims have the certainty of knowing that if there’s a change of government later this year, a Labour government will honour that commitment.”
The campaign for justice has been decades in the making. The World Health Organisation warned against importing blood products from countries with a high prevalence of Hepatitis back in 1975.
By 1983, experts were warning people with haemophilia of the risks of using blood products. In the early 2000s, former Solicitor General Lord Peter Archer and several former health ministers led an unsuccessful bid for a public inquiry. Lord Archer also chaired a privately funded probe into the scandal but it struggled to obtain documents.
Victims brought a group legal action against the Government in 2017, with a court ruling in their favour to allow a High Court action. The-the PM Theresa May bowed to public pressure to announce a public inquiry in 2017.
