Thousands of victims of the infected blood scandal are being \u00ab\u00a0harmed further\u00a0\u00bb by long waits for compensation, the chair of the public inquiry into the disaster has said.<\/p>\n
In a hard-hitting report, Sir Brian Langstaff said there were \u00ab\u00a0obvious injustices\u00a0\u00bb in the way the scheme had been devised.<\/p>\n
It is thought 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis B or C in the 1970s and 80s after being given contaminated blood products on the NHS.<\/p>\n
The government has set aside \u00a311.8bn to pay compensation and has said it is cutting red tape to speed up payments to victims.<\/p>\n
The inquiry’s main report into the scandal, published last year, found that the disaster could largely have been avoided if different decisions had been taken by the health authorities at the time.<\/p>\n
It said too little was done to stop the importing of contaminated blood products from abroad in the 1970s and 80s, and there was evidence that elements of the scandal had been covered up.<\/p>\n
In May of this year, Sir Brian took the unusual step of ordering two days of extra hearings after he received \u00ab\u00a0letter after letter, email after email\u00a0\u00bb expressing concerns about the way the government’s compensation scheme for victims had been managed.<\/p>\n
His extra 200-page report, published on Wednesday, was based on that evidence, and found that victims had been \u00ab\u00a0harmed further\u00a0\u00bb by the way they had been treated over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n
The latest figures from the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), which was set up by the government to administer payments, show that 2,043 people have been asked to start their claims so far and 460 have received full compensation.<\/p>\n
The scheme is open to those who were infected and also their family members, including parents, children and siblings, who can claim compensation in their own right as someone affected by the scandal.<\/p>\n
Sir Brian’s new report found victims had been \u00ab\u00a0harmed further\u00a0\u00bb by the way they had been treated over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0The UK government has known for years that compensation for thousands of people was inevitable and had identified many of those who should have it,\u00a0\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0But only 460 have received compensation so far and many, many more have not even been allowed to begin the process.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
The inquiry’s new report makes a series of recommendations including:<\/p>\n
Speaking in Westminster Chapel to survivors and their families after his report was published, Sir Brian said a significant cause of the blood scandal was the belief that authorities knew best and people did not need to be consulted.<\/p>\n
He said: \u00ab\u00a0Decisions were made behind closed doors and when things went wrong people weren’t listening.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It has happened again in the design of the compensation scheme. It will be a travesty to keep repeating these mistakes. People should not be kept at arms’ length.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Kate Burt, chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, said: \u00ab\u00a0Government’s failure to listen to those at the heart of the contaminated blood scandal has shamefully been exposed by the infected blood inquiry yet again.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0This failure is exhausting, damaging and is stripping this community of its dignity.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Richard Angell, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: \u00ab\u00a0We work with one family whose young son died three decades ago because of Aids-related illnesses caused by infected blood.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0His father now has dementia. It shouldn’t be too much for him to receive compensation whilst he can still remember his son.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Rachel Halford, chief executive of the Hepatitis C trust, said the government had \u00ab\u00a0delayed every action and routinely ignored the voice of the community; as a result, we have a poorly designed compensation scheme that does not reflect the harm done to thousands of people affected.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Earlier, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds denied the government was \u00ab\u00a0dragging its heels\u00a0\u00bb over compensation.<\/p>\n
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he did not want to impose any further delays after \u00ab\u00a0decades of injustice\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We’ve paid out over \u00a3488m,\u00a0\u00bb he said, adding that he had been \u00ab\u00a0very open that there are areas that I am willing to look at, listening to the voice of victims\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
The government also said last weekend that it was cutting red tape and taking other action to speed up compensation to victims and their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thousands of victims of the infected blood scandal are being \u00ab\u00a0harmed further\u00a0\u00bb by long waits for compensation, the chair of the public inquiry into the disaster has said. In a hard-hitting report, Sir Brian Langstaff said there were \u00ab\u00a0obvious injustices\u00a0\u00bb in the way the scheme had been devised. It is thought 30,000 people were infected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}