The public inquiry into the infected blood scandal has recommended more affected people should be entitled to compensation.
In the new interim report published today, the inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff said some family members, including children who lost parents, “remain unrecognized.”
The infected blood scandal affected the lives of tens of thousands of NHS patients who were unknowingly given contaminated blood products infected with HIV and hepatitis C between the 1970s and 1991.
The report agrees with the findings of an independent report by Sir Robert Francis KC, who said to ministers in June 2022 that victims should receive interim payments of at least £100,000.
In a statement Sir Brian said:
My conclusion is that wrongs were done at an individual, collective and systemic levels. I will set out the detail of what happened and why in my full report, but my judgement is that not only do the infections themselves and their consequences merit compensation, but so too do the wrongs done by authority, whose response served to compound people’s suffering.”
He added: “I am also recommending further interim compensation payments to recognise the deaths of people who have so far gone unrecognised, as I believe this is necessary to alleviate immediate suffering. It is a fact that around 380 children with bleeding disorders were infected with HIV. Some of them died in childhood. But their parents have never received compensation. Children who were orphaned as a result of infections transmitted by blood transfusions and blood products and have never had their losses recognised.
“It is time to put this right”he added
