A “concealed” truth: the public inquiry into the vast contaminated blood scandal which left nearly 3,000 dead in the United Kingdom between the 1970s and 1990s directly implicates the authorities on Monday in the management of this tragedy. For around twenty years, thousands of people suffering from hemophilia or who had undergone surgical operations were contaminated by the hepatitis C virus and HIV after receiving blood transfusions.
Rishi Sunak issues official apology
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday issued a formal apology for the tainted blood scandal in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and 1990s, which left 3,000 dead and in which authorities were accused of a cover-up.
“I want to apologize wholeheartedly and unequivocally for this terrible injustice,” Rishi Sunak told Parliament, recognizing the failures of the state, in the face of which the government must unveil a compensation program on Tuesday.
“The scale of what happened is horrifying,” describes former judge Brian Langstaff, appointed in 2018 to lead this vast public inquiry, in his report of more than 2,500 pages. After seven years of work, hearing thousands of witnesses and examining tens of thousands of documents, she concluded that the truth about this tragedy had been “hidden for decades” and that the scandal “could have been largely avoided.
“This disaster was not an accident. The contaminations occurred because those in charge – doctors, blood services and successive governments – did not prioritize patient safety,” Brian insisted. Langstaff, quoted in a press release.
Due to blood shortages, the public health service, the NHS, had turned to American suppliers who paid their donors, who included prisoners and members of other groups at significant risk of infection. “The response of the authorities in place has only aggravated the suffering” of the victims, he adds.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is due to speak in Parliament this afternoon about the scandal.
“Memorable day”
The report, into what is considered “the worst medical disaster” in the history of the NHS, lists a long list of criticisms leveled at the authorities. Thus, the health system only informed infected people late, sometimes years later, while the authorities did not withdraw risky blood products when concerns about their quality were raised.
The NHS did not sufficiently seek to reduce its imports of blood products from the US, while blood donations in the UK were not adequately monitored. The report above all denounces the responsibility of successive governments, which were slow to act when the scandal emerged. “Now is the time to nationally recognize this disaster and provide fair compensation to all those who have suffered harm,” says Brian Langstaff.
Some victims have already received a first compensation of 100,000 pounds in 2022 after the publication of a progress report. But the final cost is due to be announced this week and is expected to run into billions of pounds.
It’s a “memorable day”, reacted during a press conference Andrew Evans, co-founder of the group “Tainted Blood”, hemophiliac and himself contaminated by HIV and hepatitis C at the age of five. “At times we have felt like we are shouting into the void over the last forty years. What is happening today shows us that this can happen in the UK,” he added.
The president of the Heomophilia Society association, Clive Smith, regretted that given the time that has passed, “unfortunately (…) many will not obtain justice”.