The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): Victims of the UK’s infected blood scandal, which saw tens of thousands of people infected with contaminated blood or blood products from the public health service, will begin receiving their final compensation payments this year, the government announced on Tuesday.
This announcement follows a damning report that revealed civil servants and doctors exposed patients to unacceptable risks by administering blood transfusions or blood products tainted with HIV or hepatitis between the 1970s and early 1990s. The report also accused successive UK governments of refusing to admit wrongdoing and attempting to cover up the scandal, which led to an estimated 3,000 deaths.
Approximately 30,000 people were infected with HIV or hepatitis C during this period, making it the deadliest disaster in the history of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) since its inception in 1948.
Cabinet Office Minister John Glen informed lawmakers that many victims would receive an additional interim compensation of £210,000 ($267,000) within 90 days, prior to the establishment of the full payment plan. Glen also stated that friends and family of the infected individuals would be eligible for compensation.
In 2022, authorities made an initial interim payment of £100,000 to each survivor and bereaved partner. The total cost of the compensation package is reported to exceed £10 billion ($12.7 billion), though Glen did not confirm this figure.
Campaigners have long fought to expose official failings and secure government compensation. An inquiry into the scandal was finally approved in 2017 and over the past four years, it has reviewed evidence from more than 5,000 witnesses and over 100,000 documents.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologized for the “decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life” on Monday, calling the report’s findings “a day of shame for the British state.”
Many affected individuals were people with hemophilia, a condition that impairs blood clotting. In the 1970s, patients were treated with a new product from the United States that contained plasma from high-risk donors, including prison inmates who were paid to donate blood. Because the treatment mixed plasma from thousands of donations, one infected donor could contaminate an entire batch.
The report indicated that around 1,250 people with bleeding disorders, including 380 children, were infected with HIV-tainted blood products, and three-quarters of them have since died. Up to 5,000 others who received the blood products developed chronic hepatitis C.
Additionally, an estimated 26,800 individuals were infected with hepatitis C after receiving blood transfusions, often administered in hospitals following childbirth, surgery, or accidents, the report stated.