Infected blood inquiry: victims to get compensation before end of year in worst scandal in history of NHS

Victims of the infected blood scandal will have compensation paid to them before the end of the year, the government has said.

Cabinet Office minister John Glen told MPs that “time is of the essence” as he announced that many victims will also benefit from further interim compensation payments of £210,000 within 90 days. The announcements was made the day after the publication of the Infected Blood Inquiry report, which found decades of failures and cover up in the scandal which has led to thousands of deaths.

This saw NHS patients injected with blood and plasma from the USA, which had been donated by criminals and drug users, from the 1970s to 1990s. More than 30,000 people contracted HIV, hepatitis or other deadly diseases as a result and are still living with the consequences to this day. People continued to be given infected blood, even after the risks were known, and in some cases children were not even told they had contracted HIV.

Rishi Sunak described it as a “day of shame for the British state”, adding that the report shows a “decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life”. He said: “From the National Health Service to the civil service, to ministers in successive governments at every level, the people and institutions in which we place our trust failed in the most harrowing and devastating way.”

What does the report say?

The Infected Blood Inquiry concluded that the scandal “could largely have been avoided” and revealed a “pervasive” cover-up to conceal the truth, marking the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history. The inquiry discovered deliberate attempts to hide the disaster, including Whitehall officials destroying documents. Patients were knowingly exposed to significant infection risks, the investigation found.

The 2,527-page report details a “catalogue of failures” with “catastrophic” impacts not only on those infected with contaminated blood and blood products but also on their loved ones. More than 30,000 people contracted deadly viruses during NHS care from the 1970s to the 1990s. Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff described the disaster as a “calamity” and said, “the scale of what happened is horrifying,” with over 3,000 deaths and survivors struggling for decades to uncover the truth.

“Lord Winston famously called these events ‘the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS’. I have to report that it could largely, though not entirely, have been avoided,” Sir Brian’s report states.

The report highlights that “the truth has been hidden for decades,” with evidence of Department of Health documents being “marked” for destruction in 1993. It concludes: “Viewing the response of the NHS and of government overall, the answer to the question ‘Was there a cover-up?’ is that there has been.” It was not an orchestrated conspiracy but rather a “subtle, pervasive, and chilling” concealment of the truth.

Sir Brian said that “the level of suffering is difficult to comprehend,” compounded by the actions of successive governments, the NHS, and the medical profession. He refuted repeated government claims that patients received the best medical treatment available and that blood screening was implemented at the earliest opportunity, labelling these claims “untrue.”

The inquiry places much of the responsibility for the failures on successive governments, which acted to save face and money. The current government has been criticised for not promptly addressing compensation recommendations made last year.

Ministers have allocated approximately £10 billion for a compensation package expected to be announced soon. Sir Brian noted that government decision-making during the scandal was slow and that a “doctor knows best” attitude delayed protective actions for patients.

Patients were “betrayed” by having tests conducted on them without their knowledge or consent. In a statement, Sir Brian said: “In families across the UK, people were treated by the NHS and over 30,000 were given infections which were life-shattering. Three thousand people have already died and that number is climbing week by week. Lives, dreams, friendships, families, finances were destroyed.

“This disaster was not an accident. The infections happened because those in authority – doctors, the blood services, and successive governments – did not put patient safety first. The response of those in authority served to compound people’s suffering. The Government is right to accept that compensation must be paid. Now is the time for national recognition of this disaster and for proper compensation to all who have been wronged.”

Key failures highlighted in the infected blood inquiry report

The report highlights key failures, including:

• A failure to act over risks linked to contaminated blood – some of which were known before the NHS was established in 1948.
• The slowness of the response to the scandal; for instance, it was apparent by mid-1982 that there was a risk that the cause of Aids could be transmitted by blood and blood products but the government failed to take steps to reduce that risk.
• Tests on blood were not introduced as quickly as they could have been.
• Patients and the wider public were given false reassurances.
• There were delays informing people about their infections – sometimes for years – and they were told in “insensitive” and “inappropriate” ways.
• Patients were “cruelly” told repeatedly that they had received the best treatment available.
• People with bleeding disorders were treated without proper consent and research was carried out on them without their knowledge.
• Children with bleeding disorders who attended Treloar College, where pupils with haemophilia were treated at an on-site NHS centre, were treated as “objects for research”. The report said these children were given “multiple, riskier” treatments. Other children with bleeding disorders were also given treatment “unnecessarily”.
• Regulatory failures, including the licensing of dangerous products, and failure to remove them from the market when concerns were raised.
• Instead of ensuring a sufficient supply of UK-made treatments for haemophilia, the NHS continued to import the blood clotting blood plasma treatment Factor VIII from the US – where manufacturers paid high-risk donors, including prison inmates and drug users. The UK blood services continued to collect blood donations from prisons until 1984.
• In terms of blood transfusions, blood donors were not screened properly and there were delays in blood screening. Too many transfusions were given when they were not necessarily needed.

Sir Brian has made recommendations on compensation, recognition for those affected, incorporating lessons into medical training, strengthening duty of candour regulations, and addressing a culture of “defensiveness.”

What has the government said?

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Rishi Sunak issued a “wholehearted and unequivocal” apology to the victims, saying the publication of the report into the disaster was “a day of shame for the British state”. He said: “Today’s report shows a decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life. From the National Health Service to the civil service, to ministers in successive governments at every level, the people and institutions in which we place our trust failed in the most harrowing and devastating way. They failed the victims and their families – and they failed this country.”

The Prime Minister said the report found “catalogue” of systemic, collective, and individual failures, “each on its own serious and taken together amounting to a “calamity”. He added that “the result of this inquiry should shake our nation to its core”. “This should have been avoided,” Sunak told MPs. “It was known these treatments were contaminated. Warnings were ignored. Repeatedly.

“Time and again people in positions of power and trust had the chance to stop the transmission of those infections. Time and again they failed do so.”

Outlining the compensation package, John Glen said: “Yesterday the Prime Minister spoke about the anguish that the infected blood scandal brought to those impacted by it. I want to reiterate his words and apologise again today, I am sorry.” He added: “Those who have been infected or affected as a result of this scandal will receive compensation.

“To be crystal clear, if you have been directly or indirectly infected by NHS blood, blood products or tissue contaminated with HIV or hepatitis C, or have developed a chronic infection from blood contaminated with hepatitis B, you will be eligible to claim compensation under the scheme.

“And where an infected person has died, but would have been eligible under these criteria, compensation will be paid to their estate. And this will include where a person was infected with hepatitis B and died during the acute period of infection.”