The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, has apologized for the infected blood scandal which has been referred to as a “decades-long moral failure” following a public inquiry into the matter. The scandal saw 30,000 people infected with contaminated blood treatments, with about 3,000 victims dying as a result from hepatitis and HIV. The authorities were accused of covering up the scandal, with the inquiry stating that victims were failed “not once but repeatedly” by doctors, government, and the NHS.
The inquiry found that safety had not been paramount in decision-making and pointed out that the risk of transmitting viral infections in blood and blood products had been known since the NHS’s foundation in 1948. The report revealed that the government had continued importing blood products from abroad, including high-risk donors in the US, where prisoners and drug addicts had been paid to give blood, despite promising to be self-sufficient. Furthermore, the licensing authorities had failed to recognize and acknowledge that some products were unsafe and should not have been licensed for use.
The government also ignored warnings from one of the UK’s top infectious-disease experts, Dr Spence Galbraith, back in 1983, stating that all imported US blood products should be withdrawn from NHS use until the HIV risk had been clarified. It took until the end of 1985 to heat-treat blood products, to eliminate HIV, despite the risk having been identified since 1982.
The scandal has affected two main groups of people: those with haemophilia or genetic disorders that cause clotting problems, and those who had a blood transfusion after childbirth, accidents, or during medical treatment. The second group included people who received contaminated blood, mainly with hepatitis C. Sir Brian Langstaff, who chaired the inquiry, stated that the scandal had destroyed “lives, dreams, friendships, families and finances” and that the numbers dying were still climbing week by week.
The report concluded that the scandal was not accidental; rather, it had happened because those in authority — the doctors, the blood services, and successive governments — did not put patient safety first. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, also apologized, calling it one of the “gravest injustices” the country has seen. The government has promised to compensate victims, with details to follow on Tuesday
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