- Written by Nick Triggle and Jim Reid
- bbc news
image source, Getty Images
A public inquiry into the blood scandal, known as the worst treatment disaster in NHS history, is set to publish its findings.
From 1970 to 1991, more than 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products and transfusions.
About 3,000 of them have since died, and many hemophiliacs are given infected blood products as part of their treatment.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to apologize on Monday.
Two main groups were involved in this scandal.
One was a person with hemophilia or a similar condition, a rare genetic disorder that prevents blood from clotting properly.
In the 1970s, a new treatment was developed to replace the missing clotting agent and was made from donated human plasma.
However, the entire batch of therapeutic drugs – Factor VIII and Factor IX – was contaminated with the deadly virus.
Some of the treatments were imported from the United States, with blood purchased from high-risk donors such as prison inmates and drug users.
The second group affected includes people who received blood transfusions after childbirth, in an accident, or during treatment.
Although the blood used in these patients was not imported, some of it was also contaminated, primarily with hepatitis C.
- Is sufficient support provided to victims?
- whether the government or the NHS tried to cover up what happened;
- What should have been done to prevent people from becoming infected, including whether testing could have been introduced sooner?
Sir Brian’s two interim reports, published in July 2022 and April 2023, made recommendations on compensation for victims and their families.
The government has announced it will accept a “moral action” seeking compensation, and interim payments of £100,000 each have already been made to around 4,000 survivors and surviving partners.
Ministers promised to address the final compensation issue once the investigation report is published. Total costs could reach billions of dollars.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Laura Kuenssberg that Defense Secretary Grant Shapps agreed that families had been let down “for decades” and that there had been a “rare moment of agreement”. Told.
Andy Evans, chairman of the Contaminated Blood campaign group, who contracted HIV and hepatitis C through treatment for haemophilia as a child, said the publication of the report was a “definitive move” after decades of campaigning. “It will be a moment,” he said.
“This is where we’re pinning our hopes, really, there’s nowhere else to go to chase this,” he said.
“Victims have been accused by the government from the beginning that the treatment was the best it could be and that all decisions were made with the best intentions and the best information available at the time.
“During the course of the investigation, that was proven to be false. The evidence we heard from both victims and government officials and the NHS showed that it was not true.”
During the four-year investigation, victims and their families gave evidence alongside former and current ministers, including Lord Clarke, who served as health secretary in the 1980s, and current prime minister Jeremy Hunt, who gave evidence when he was a former health secretary. submitted. Minister.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour, Labor MP Diana Johnson, a leading parliamentary campaigner on behalf of victims of the scandal, spoke with victims and their families ahead of the report’s publication. Many of the family members said they were “anxious” and “worried.” She says, “many times they are disappointed.”
He said those affected by the scandal had had to “continue to fight” against successive governments since the 1980s, which have denied any wrongdoing, and that compensation for them would mean “the state must pay these individuals and their families. “It would be an acknowledgment of what he had done to the people,” he said.
She said there was hope that the main questions would be answered: “Why was this allowed to happen? Why was it kept hidden for so many years?” – Sir Brian answers.
Former Business Secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg told the same program: “When a state kills someone, it must pay for it” and said the government “shouldn’t shy away from the costs involved”. Ta.
He added that the scandal shows that “the defense mechanisms within state institutions need to be broken down.”
“For some reason, there is a desire to cover up mistakes made by the government long ago, so as not to benefit anyone currently in power…Why aren’t states more openly saying mistakes were made? can not understand. “
Regarding the issue of compensation for victims and their families, the Conservative MP said: “People are entitled to this compensation. This is one of the most important bills the government will pay.”
Campaigners have also criticized how long it took for a public inquiry to take place.
In other countries that have faced contaminated blood scandals, such as France and Japan, investigations into medical malpractice were completed years ago.
In some cases, doctors, politicians, and other officials faced criminal charges.
In the UK, a closed-door inquiry in 2009, funded entirely by donations, had no powers, while another investigation in Scotland in 2015 was branded a “sham” by victims and their families. Pushed.
In 2017, under political pressure, then Prime Minister Theresa May ordered a UK-wide public inquiry.
The findings are expected to be announced at 12:30 BST.
