The British government has announced that thousands of victims of the U.K.’s infected blood scandal will begin receiving their final compensation payments this year. This scandal, which involved tens of thousands of people being infected by contaminated blood or blood products provided by the public health service, is considered the deadliest disaster in Britain’s National Health Service since its establishment in 1948.
The announcement followed the release of a report revealing that civil servants and doctors had exposed patients to unacceptable risks by administering blood transfusions or blood products tainted with HIV or hepatitis from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologized for what he described as a “decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life.”
The report highlighted that successive U.K. governments had refused to acknowledge wrongdoing and attempted to cover up the scandal. It is estimated that about 3,000 people died as a result of receiving contaminated blood or blood products, with approximately 30,000 people being infected with HIV or hepatitis C during that period.
Cabinet Office Minister John Glen informed lawmakers that victims needing urgent payments would receive an additional interim compensation of £210,000 ($267,000) within 90 days, prior to the full payment plan being established. He also mentioned that friends and family members who cared for the infected individuals would be eligible for compensation.
An initial interim payment of £100,000 was made in 2022 to each survivor and bereaved partner. Glen did not specify the total cost of the compensation package, though it is estimated to exceed £10 billion ($12.7 billion).
However, Des Collins, a lawyer representing many victims, pointed out that numerous bereaved families have not yet received any payments and lack information on how to claim the interim payments promised to the estates of deceased victims.
Campaigners have spent decades pushing for official accountability and government compensation. The inquiry, approved in 2017, has reviewed evidence from over 5,000 witnesses and more than 100,000 documents over the past four years.
The scandal primarily affected individuals with hemophilia, a condition that impairs blood clotting. In the 1970s, patients were treated with a new product from the United States that included plasma from high-risk donors, such as prison inmates who were paid for their blood. Because the treatment involved plasma from thousands of donations, a single 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 died. Additionally, up to 5,000 others who received these blood products developed chronic hepatitis C.
An estimated 26,800 individuals were also infected with hepatitis C following blood transfusions, commonly administered after childbirth, surgery, or accidents. The report concluded that the disaster could have been largely avoided if officials had taken action to mitigate the known risks associated with blood transfusions and blood products. The U.K. was notably behind other developed countries in implementing rigorous screening of blood products and donor selection.
The harm was exacerbated by concealment and a defensive culture within the government and health services, according to the inquiry.