Inquiry opens into NHS blood transfusions scandal

Some 4,500 people were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C up to 40 years ago
Patients were given blood products that had been brought over from the US in the 1970s and 1980s, at the height of the Aids epidemic © Alamy
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30 Apr 2019

A public inquiry has opened in the UK into how 4,500 people were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after receiving tainted blood transfusions from the government-run National Health Service up to 40 years ago.

In what has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in NHS history, the infections occurred after the patients were given blood products that had been brought over from the US in the 1970s and 1980s, at the height of the Aids epidemic. More than 2,000 of those infected are thought to have died.

Many of the victims had haemophilia, a condition that inhibits blood clotting, and requires injections of a blood-clotting protein called Factor VIII.

The Infected Blood inquiry will hear thousands of testimonies from individuals who were infected, as well as relatives and friends, and is expected to last up to three years.

 “Some [testimonies] are harrowing, some incredibly moving and some chillingly factual,” said Brian Langstaff, the former judge chairing the inquiry committee. He stressed that greater efforts were needed to improve detection of Hepatitis C.

Sir Brian reiterated the principles that would govern the inquiry, already set out at preliminary hearings. “Putting people at its heart; UK-wide; being as quick as reasonable thoroughness permits; paying proper respect to a person’s right to be heard; being as open and transparent as it is legally possible to be; being independent of government, and frightened of no one in the conclusions it draws,” he said.

The first victim to speak on Tuesday was Derek Martindale, a severe haemophiliac, who received an HIV diagnosis at a hospital in Leeds in 1985 after receiving Factor VIII.

Speaking with his son beside him, and with his wife looking on, he said: “I remember the date: it was Friday the 13th in September 1985. I was told I was HIV positive and I had a year to live and not to tell anyone, including my family and my parents.”

 Mr Martindale’s brother, also a haemophiliac, contracted HIV around the same time from a Factor VIII blood transfusion and died within five years. Mr Martindale said that the biggest regret of his life was not providing emotional support to his brother in the final months.

 “It’s the biggest regret of my life because he’s gone and I can’t do anything to make amends for that,” he said.

Mr Martindale has received an undisclosed amount of compensation. He said that when he received his first payment he had to sign a waiver stating that he would not seek or take action against the government for the HIV infection.

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“Everyone had to sign it otherwise nobody would get a payout,” he said.

On Monday, ahead of the hearing, Theresa May, prime minister, pledged up to an extra £29m per year in funding to support victims and their loved ones, increasing payments from £46m to £75m. The move was angrily dismissed by campaign organisations.

 Factor 8, an independent group representing haemophiliacs, described the government move as a “derisory offer” and a “blatant attempt of damage limitation”. It noted that the supposed increase would equate to less than £900 per person infected.

Separately, a fresh criminal investigation has been launched into the discovery that hundreds of patients had died after being given powerful painkillers at Gosport hospital in Hampshire.

The care provided to patients who died at the hospital between 1987 and 2001 would be the subject of a full police investigation, Kent Police said in a statement on Tuesday.