Infected blood scandal: NHS disaster probe to publish findings

The public inquiry into the infected blood scandal, known as the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS, is set to publish its findings.

More than 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis C between 1970 and 1991 through contaminated blood products and transfusions.

Around 3,000 of them have since died – many with hemophiliacs having received infected blood products as part of their treatment.

Chairman Sir Brian Langstaff will present his findings on Monday.

Two main groups of people were involved in the scandal.

One involved people with hemophilia and those with similar disorders, who suffer from a rare genetic condition that means their blood does not clot properly.

In the 1970s, a new treatment was developed to replace the missing clotting agents, based on donated human blood plasma.

But entire batches of treatments – Factor VIII and Factor IX – were contaminated with deadly viruses.

Some treatments were imported from the United States, where blood was purchased from high-risk donors, such as prison inmates and drug addicts.

The second group concerned includes people who received a blood transfusion after childbirth, an accident or during medical treatment.

The blood used for these patients was not imported, but some of it was also contaminated, mainly with hepatitis C.

Sir Brian’s two interim reports, published in July 2022 and April 2023, contained recommendations on compensation for victims and their families.

The government said it accepted the “moral arguments” for compensation, and interim payments of £100,000 each have already been paid to around 4,000 survivors and bereaved partners.

Ministers have promised to address the issue of final compensation once the inquiry’s report is published. The total cost could be in the billions.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Laura Kuenssberg there had been a “rare moment of consensus”, with Defense Secretary Grant Shapps acknowledging families had been abandoned “for decades”.

The chairman of campaign group Tainted Blood, Andy Evans, who was infected with HIV and hepatitis C as a child following treatment for haemophilia, said the publication of the report would be a “defining moment » after decades of campaigning.

“That’s really where we’re pinning our hopes: We have nowhere to go after this,” he said.

“From the outset, victims were informed by the government that the treatment was the best available and that every decision was made with the best intentions and with the best information available to them at the time.

“During the investigation this was found to be untrue. The evidence we heard, both from victims, officials and the NHS, showed this was not true.”

During the four-year inquiry, victims and their families gave evidence alongside current and former ministers, including Lord Clarke, who served as Health Minister in the 1980s, and the current Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, who also gave evidence in his former role as Minister for Health. minister.

Speaking to the BBC’s Westminster Hour on Radio 4, Dame Diana Johnson, a Labor MP campaigning in Parliament for victims of the scandal, said many victims and their families were “worried” and “worried” before the report is published. like “so many times before we are disappointed”.

She said those affected by the scandal had had to “fight and fight” against successive governments who had denied any wrongdoing since the 1980s, and that their compensation would be “an acknowledgment of what the state has done to these individuals and their families.

She said there is hope that their main questions – “Why was this allowed to happen and why was it covered up for so many years?” – Sir Brian would answer.

Speaking on the same programme, former business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “If the state has killed people it must pay the price” and that the government “will not should not fear that it will be expensive.

He added that the scandal demonstrated the existence of a “defense mechanism within state institutions that we must break down.”

“For some reason there is a desire to cover up the mistakes made by a government that has been in power for a long time, for the benefit of whoever is currently in government…I don’t understand why the state is not more open to say yes, mistakes were made.

On the issue of compensation for victims and their families, MP Conversatif said: “People deserve this compensation. This is one of the biggest bills the government will pay.”

Campaigners also criticized the time it took to secure a public inquiry.

In other countries facing tainted blood scandals, including France and Japan, investigations into medical disasters were completed many years ago.

In some cases, criminal charges have been brought against doctors, politicians and other officials.

In the UK, a private investigation in 2009 – funded entirely by donations – had no real power, while a separate Scottish investigation in 2015 was branded a “whitewash” by victims and their families.

In 2017, following political pressure, then-Prime Minister Theresa May ordered a UK-wide public inquiry.

The results are expected to be presented at 12:30 p.m. BST.