best for REAL LIFE
Having battled for more than 40 years for answers, those affected by the blood scandal may finally get some justice…
When you, or a loved one are ill, you go to hospital and usually – where possible – they help to make you better. You trust what you’re being told and put faith in the treatment you’re given but sadly, that wasn’t always the case between the 70s and 90s.
It was during that period that more than 30,000 people were infected with deadly viruses including HIV and Hepatitis C through contaminated blood products.
Many patients ‘died or suffered miserably’ not because of their conditions or illness, but as a result of the treatment itself. And after years of families battling for answers and accountability, the Infected Blood Inquiry has released a report of more than 2,527 pages, which documents a ‘catalogue of failures’ which had ‘catastrophic’ consequences.
The release of the report led Rishi Sunak to declare it a ‘day of shame’ for the British state, with the inquiry finding that deliberate attempts were made to cover up the calamity, with documents being destroyed and more than 3,000 people losing their lives because of infected blood products.
Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff said: ‘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.’ He said there had been a lack of openness and elements of ‘downright destruction’, including the destruction of documents.
The report also found that, in the UK, blood donations were accepted from high-risk groups, such as prisoners, until 1986, and blood products weren’t heat-treated to eliminate HIV until the end of 1985, although risks were known in 1982. It also said there was too little testing to reduce the risk of hepatitis from the 70s onwards.
Tragically, children were even used as ‘objects of research’ at a specialist school where boys were treated for haemophilia – where the blood does not clot properly – and of the 122 pupils who attended the Lord Mayor Treloar College in the 70s and 80s with this condition, on
