Infected blood victims ‘left in dark’ over compensation, Andy Burnham warns

Victims of the infected blood scandal have been “left in the dark” about when they will receive compensation a year after a sweeping inquiry report was published, Andy Burnham has said.

The Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, who served as health secretary under Gordon Brown, also called for criminal investigations into the scandal.

The Infected Blood Inquiry, which published its seminal report a year ago, concluded the scandal “could largely have been avoided” and there was a “pervasive” cover-up to hide the truth.

Infected

More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C after they were given contaminated blood and blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s. More than 3,000 people have died as a result while survivors are living with lifelong health implications.

Comprehensive statistics relating specifically to Wales are not widely available, but Haemophilia Wales state that in the 1970s and 1980s, 283 patients in Wales were infected with hepatitis C. Of those, 55 were also infected with HIV through factor concentrates made from imported pooled plasma; in Wales alone over 70 people with haemophilia have died.

A compensation scheme was announced the day after the report was published.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Week In Westminster programme, Mr Burnham said it “pains me” to hear victims are still without compensation a year after the scheme was launched.

The Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) has said, as of May 6, 106 compensation payments have been made, totalling more than £96 million.

‘Put things right’

Mr Burnham, who has campaigned on behalf of victims, added: “We thought, didn’t we, after the public inquiry reported that the whole of the British state would say, ‘right, now we put things right, and we do it quickly’.

“Firstly, there’s just the delays and they’re left in the dark, and so many people just left waiting. There’s the randomness of it.”

Compensation awards appear to be made via a “lottery” the mayor claimed, insisting they should instead be given out “on the basis of people’s need and the level of their condition”.

Mr Burnham added: “It’s just wrong that people have been dying weekly ever since the public inquiry reported without any compensation at all. How does anybody in Whitehall justify that?”

The former health secretary stood by previous comments in which he said he believed there had been a criminal cover-up behind the scandal.

“This is a systematic cover-up all the way through the system that went on for decades under all governments,” he said.

Mr Burnham added: “It has got to be the case that alongside the compensation, there has to be criminal investigation.

“Because I know as secretary of state, I was given untrue briefings that contained that line – that nobody was supposedly knowingly given unsafe blood – but the warnings had been given to the Department of Health, many, many years before.”