UK blood scandal victims due ‘no less than £100,000 in compensation’

Victims of an infected blood scandal dubbed the worst treatment disaster in the NHS’s history should receive “no less than £100,000 in compensation” as quickly as possible, the chair of an inquiry into the affair said on Friday. 

The estimated number affected, and proposed level of compensation, would imply a bill of at least £400mn.

The investigation into how 4,500 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis C after receiving tainted blood transfusions from the NHS up to 40 years ago was launched in 2018. It has taken evidence from victims, their relatives, politicians and others to examine how patients were given contaminated blood products that originated in the US at the height of the Aids epidemic in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Though he has yet to deliver a final report, former judge Sir Brian Langstaff said he had opted to issue an interim statement because many people eligible for payments were “likely to be living on borrowed time”.

Langstaff quoted one “deeply poignant letter” from a woman who had told him she was suffering from terminal cancer as a result of her infection. It was “difficult to think of a more eloquent plea for speed”, he said.

More than 2,000 of those infected are thought to have since died. Many of the victims had haemophilia, a condition that inhibits blood clotting. 

Robert Francis QC was appointed last year to give the government independent advice on a “workable and fair” framework for compensation. 

Last month, he told the inquiry that, irrespective of its findings, there was “a strong moral case for a publicly-funded scheme to compensate both infected and affected victims of infected blood and blood products infected with HCV or HIV, and that the infections eligible for compensation be reviewed on a regular basis in light of developing knowledge”.

Francis added that the government “should immediately consider offering a standard figure by way of substantial interim payments”.

Langstaff said the submissions he had received in response to Francis’s recommendation had overwhelmingly pointed out “that many of those likeliest to be eligible for an award are likely to be living on borrowed time” and had already “waited years”.

In addition to the challenges of age, many were dealing with the legacy of hepatitis C infection, or the continuing effects of HIV, or were co-infected with both, he said. “Many suffer the physical, mental, social, financial, marital and employment consequences of these dreadful infections,” he added.

All too many had seen close family members and friends “suffer a dreadful death that might have been their own”, said Langstaff. Owing to the stigma, many had felt compelled to hide their infections even from their own children or other close family members.

“An interim payment should be paid without delay to all those infected and all bereaved partners currently registered on UK infected blood support schemes and those who register between now and the inception of any future scheme,” he said, adding that the amount should be no less than £100,000, as Francis recommended.

The government said it was “grateful to Sir Brian Langstaff for his interim report regarding interim compensation for victims of infected blood”.

“We recognise how important this will be for people infected and affected across the UK, and can confirm that the government will consider Sir Brian’s report and the recommendations of Sir Robert Francis QC with the utmost urgency, and will respond as soon as possible,” it added.