People who were given infected blood while receiving NHS care are “scared they won’t live to see compensation”, according to campaigners.
The Infected Blood Inquiry is set to reopen later this week to examine the “timeliness and adequacy” of the government’s response to compensation.
Gary Webster, who was infected with HIV and hepatitis C when he attended Lord Mayor’s Treloar’s School in Hampshire in 1970s and 1980s said he felt things had “gone downhill” since the inquiry published its report last May.
Mr Webster told the PA news agency that progress was “too slow” and there seemed to be “a random system” to choose who receives compensation.
“We fought for so many years to get to this stage… and now they’re saying they hope to pay all the infected by the end of 2027 and they hope to pay the affected by the end of 2029,” he said.
“Well, there’s two people dying a week – you only have to do the sums yourself to work out that’s a lot of people that aren’t going to get paid, aren’t going to get the justice and will die not knowing what happened.”
“I think people are scared now that they’re not going to survive until they get compensation,” Mr Webster added.
Another former pupil of the school who was infected with hepatitis C, Glenn Wilkinson, last year told Sky News that the compensation offer was “paltry”.
The Haemophilia Society said the scandal had “ruined” people’s lives, with compensation delays having “added to their suffering”.
The Hepatitis C Trust said it hoped reopening the inquiry would “bring about a step change in the government’s attitude to the people impacted by this terrible scandal”.
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Infected blood claim delays
Between the 1970s and early 1990s, more than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C while receiving NHS care.
Some 3,000 people have died after they were given contaminated blood and blood products, while survivors live with lifelong implications.
‘Restless for progress’
In last October’s Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves committed £11.8bn to compensate victims of the infected blood scandal.
The compensation scheme is administered by the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), which as of 24 April, has invited 475 people to make a claim and made 77 payments totalling more than £78m, according to its figures.
Campaigners will give evidence during the inquiry’s latest hearings, as well as Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, who said last month that he was “restless for progress” in handing out compensation.
Sir Brian Langstaff, the inquiry’s chairman, has said the victims and families of those affected have been left distressed and powerless by the government’s approach and that both those infected and affected “do not have time on their side”.
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An IBCA spokesperson said its priority was “paying as many people as soon as possible” and that it was using what it had learned “to increase the number of claims each week”.
A government spokesperson said it was “fully committed to cooperating with the inquiry” and was working to deliver “one of the most comprehensive compensation schemes in modern history”.
