A judge has ruled that the parents and children of victims of the contaminated blood scandal should receive government compensation.
Sir Brian Langstaff, chairman of the public inquiry into infected blood, stated that it was time to recognize fatalities that had previously been ignored.
In the 1970s and 1980s, more than 3,000 individuals died after contracting HIV or hepatitis C through NHS treatments.
Now, the government must respond to the suggestions.
The government agreed in August 2022 to make the first interim compensation payments of £100,000 to approximately 4,000 surviving victims and widows.
Sir Brian said a compensation framework for these and other groups should be created by year’s end.
“Swift action will require political will, but the circumstances warrant it,” he said.
In his testimony in 2021, then-health secretary Matt Hancock stated that victims and their families would receive compensation if the public inquiry formally demanded it.
“Time to make amends”
In 2019, the lengthy public inquiry into the infected blood scandal began collecting testimony.
Before this, those infected with HIV and hepatitis C survived on annual financial support payments. But never received compensation for lost wages, care costs, and other lifetime losses.
According to victims’ groups, the initial decision to award interim compensation was a significant step towards an official admission of responsibility for the NHS’s worst treatment disaster in history.
Sir Brian’s second set of proposals suggests paying infected people’s parents and children.
“Approximately 380 infants with bleeding disorders have been infected with HIV. Some of them passed away as children. “However, their parents have never been compensated,” he stated.
“Children who became orphans as a consequence of blood transfusions and blood products have never had their losses acknowledged. It is time to make amends.”
The father and two uncles of Tim Wratten perished of hepatitis C after receiving infected blood. Now, he advocates for the offspring of those affected.
“I didn’t learn that my father had it until I was 16,” he told.
Growing up and attempting to comprehend the impact of the virus is arduous.
“He used to get angry because you have this horrible virus in your body, but you have to go to work and continue.”
Tim stated that he did not receive any counseling or assistance and believes that children were “swept under the rug.”
What is the blood contamination scandal?
Thousands of NHS patients with hemophilia and other blood disorders became gravely ill after receiving the new factor VIII or IX treatment beginning in the mid-1970s.
At the time, the medication was imported from the United States, where it was manufactured from the aggregated blood plasma of thousands of paid donors, including some from high-risk populations such as prisoners and drug addicts.
If a single donor had hepatitis or HIV, the entire medicine supply could be contaminated.
Half of 1,250 HIV-positive bleeding disease patients died from HIV-related causes.
The investigation estimates that an additional 30,000 patients in the United Kingdom were exposed to hepatitis B or C through the same treatment or a blood transfusion following childbirth or hospital surgery.
More than 2,000 people perished due to liver disease or malignancy caused by the infection.
‘Full recompense’
Sir Brian said scandal victims, including those who got interim payments, should receive full compensation immediately.
This would imply that individuals can seek compensation for care expenses, financial loss, and societal damage.
It would cover increased payments for those who, in the 1980s and 1990s, were unable to have children due to their infection or lost their employment due to the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.
The inquiry team will issue a final report with scandal suggestions in autumn.
A government spokesperson stated that preparations for a response to the final report were ongoing.
