It has been called a "chilling” NHS and government cover-up while over 3,000 people have died from contaminated blood
It has been called the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS, with more than 30,000 people in the UK infected with HIV and hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s to the early 90s.
Blood transfusions during surgery or through blood plasma products imported from the US to treat haemophiliacs caused NHS patients to be infected with deadly viruses, including hundreds of children. It’s thought over 3,000 people have died as a result and it’s estimated two people die on average every week.
Inquiry
An independent public inquiry into the scandal was officially opened in 2018 and is the largest public inquiry ever carried out in the UK. The final inquiry results were published on May 20, following decades of survivors and family members of victims battling to uncover the truth.
The scathing report found authorities had covered up the scandal and exposed victims to unacceptable risks in what it called a “chilling” NHS and government cover-up. The risk of viral infections in blood products had been known since 1948, the report found.
The scale of the scandal was described as “horrifying” as the inquiry accused doctors, the government and NHS of repeatedly failing patients.
Brian Langstaff who chaired the investigation said it could “largely though not entirely, have been avoided” but that “the NHS and successive governments compounded the agony by refusing to accept that wrong had been done.”
Delays to an inquiry have been called in itself a source of harm, with many dying without redress or adequate support, and victims fearing the slow response to the scandal meant many of those responsible will never be held to account.
Compensation
This Tuesday ministers will announce an unprecedented compensation scheme worth around £10bn for the victims of the scandal. A government minister is set to announce the setting up of an Infected Blood Compensation Authority to handle individual claims.
In a statement yesterday, Rishi Sunak said he was “truly sorry” for the failures of what he called a “decades-long moral failure” and called it a “day of shame for the British state”.
(Image credit: Flickr / Creative Commons)
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
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