Infected Blood Victims have to be paid £100,000 in compensation for “living on borrowed time,” said the chairman of the Infected Blood Inquiry.
In an interim report, Sir Brian Langstaff said: payments must be made “immediately” to the infected persons or to their next of kin.
“Not doing this is potentially unjust. It exposes people to ongoing pain, difficulties and disabilities, the worst of which can now be alleviated,” he said.
His recommendation comes after Sir Robert Francis QC’s report to the government said that interim payments of at least £100,000 should be made to those previously eligible for aid.
The study was set up to examine how thousands of patients in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C from contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. About 2,400 people died in what has been described as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.
In a letter to Michael Ellis, the Paymaster General, accompanying the report, Sir Brian wrote: “As you will read, it was the strength of Sir Robert Francis QC’s recommendation for an interim payment, as reinforced by him over the of his oral evidence for the investigation, which made me ponder whether I should exercise my powers to make such a report.
“I believed that basic justice required me to think about this question. No submission submitted to me argued that I should not make a recommendation.
‘Probably living on borrowed time’
Sir Brian said that after considering the submissions and evidence for the investigation into “deep physical and mental suffering”, he felt it was “right” to prepare the interim report before closing the investigation next year.
An interim payment is to be made “to all those infected and any next of kin currently registered with UK infected blood aid schemes, and those registering between now and the start of a future settlement,” he said, adding: “The amount would be no less than £100,000 as recommended by Sir Robert Francis QC.”
A package of recommendations for compensation is expected to be issued once the investigation is completed, but activists have argued that early payment is necessary for those who have suffered for years since their infection.