Andy Burnham has slammed the authorities who oversaw the infection of thousands of NHS patients with contaminated blood since the 1970s. The Greater Manchester Mayor gave evidence to the Infected Blood Inquiry in London today (July 15), saying that victims and their families need accountability from the public bodies at fault, just like those involved in the Hillsborough disaster.
The infection of up to 30,000 people with HIV or hepatitis C from contaminated blood has been called the NHS’s biggest treatment disaster. The scandal has prompted an independent inquiry, following the deaths of thousands after contaminated blood products were imported from the US in the 1970s and 1980s, often from prisoners, sex workers and drug addicts who were paid to give their blood.
Today, the former health secretary and health minister called the scandal a ‘colossal failure’, saying that there ‘may even be a case for asking the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider charges of corporate manslaughter’. He is also calling on the Conservative leadership candidates to make interim compensation payments as victims, many of whom are likely to have their lives shortened by their infections, write their wills.
Starting his statement to the inquiry, the mayor said: “I make this statement conscious of the sheer enormity of the harm caused by contaminated blood and blood products in the UK. I want to say at the outset that the individuals affected, and their families, have been in my thoughts as I have prepared this statement.
“Those thousands of people, scattered across the UK, have suffered not only from the direct damage to their health but also from the huge psychological harms of being left in the wilderness for many years, pushed away by the authorities, trying to come to terms with the injustice they have suffered.
“I believe they are victims of gross negligence not only by members of the medical profession but also by successive governments and Parliaments which failed to right this wrong despite the evidence that existed.
“The former Prime Minister was right to issue a national apology for this collective failure, in which we all must accept a share of the responsibility, but that apology will only have meaning if this public inquiry now establishes the full truth, secures full redress for those affected and leads to changes that will prevent such a colossal failing from being repeated in the future.”
Victims, along with Mayor Burnham, have long believed the extent of the contamination scandal was covered up.
One example suggesting the government knew the risks of importing blood comes in a letter to the Department of Health in 1983 from the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre in London, which called for US blood products to be withdrawn over links to HIV that needed examining properly.
Parallels have been drawn with the Hillsborough disaster, with Burnham saying in evidence: “I was heavily involved in the Hillsborough campaign and, later on, other justice campaigns. This is significant because the work I did on Hillsborough very much began to influence how I saw the issue of contaminated blood.
“I had always seen contaminated blood in the context of financial compensation, as that is where the focus of the Parliamentary campaign had always been during my time there. However, [late MP] Paul [Goggins] said to me that victims needed more than that. Victims needed answers and accountability, just like the Hillsborough families.”
In hearings this morning the Chair asked Burnham: “To use your experience in government how civil servants worked and how corporate memory…was developed, whether this is simply sloppy or how did it come about?”
Andy Burnham replied: “I think embedded deep within the Civil Service psyche, over not just a few years in question, but a number of decades, I would say, the response to this particular issue (Infected Blood) was primarily driven by fear of financial exposure.”
He went on to say: “I think that explains to me why the UK Government has comprehensively failed the victims of infected blood, I would say, over five decades and that is hopefully what your Inquiry may finally correct.”
The hearing room audience gave a lengthy applause.
The shocking personal stories of patients were also raised in his evidence, including the story of one couple who told the mayor that they had been to see a lawyer the mid-1990s who told them the husband was hepatitis B positive. The husband had been diagnosed in 1977 according to his medical records, but the pair had never been able to access them.
“I couldn't believe what she was saying,” he said. “He was diagnosed in 1977 and you found out from a lawyer in I think 1994.
“And that for me was the sort of as revealing as the first time I knew there was amended statements in Hillsborough. There was a line here up in government and a reality here, why would a diagnosis be withheld from a patient for all of those years? I remember that day vividly because I remembered that was the day -- it was always as a politician you kind of have instincts, is that right? Not sure about that. That was the day where I said okay, I'm doing something on this now.”
Looking to the future, the Greater Manchester Mayor and former MP for Leigh is urging those in the Tory leadership bid to pledge their support for immediate compensation payments after ‘woefully inadequate’ payouts so far.
In a letter to each leadership candidate, shared with the Manchester Evening News , the mayor wrote: “The Department of Health, and the bodies for which it is responsible, have been grossly negligent of the safety of people in the haemophilia community over five decades to the extent where there may even be a case for asking the CPS to consider charges of corporate manslaughter.
“It is, of course, for the inquiry to determine its own view on these matters. But, at this stage, two things are clear: first, the financial compensation provided to victims hitherto has been woefully inadequate; second, some victims do not have time on their side and need a fair settlement now.
“The Government asked Sir Robert Francis to carry out a study of options for a new compensation framework and I would like to thank Penny Mordaunt for initiating it as Paymaster General. In his evidence to the Inquiry this week, Sir Robert said:
"There is a compelling case for awarding interim payments as soon as possible to the infected who have already been accepted as eligible for the support schemes. Many wish to be able to settle their affairs before they die … Part of my thinking about it was that the interim payment itself should be of sufficient substance that actually it might reflect at least the substantial part of quite a lot of people's claims.”
Burnham raised fears that the leadership race will delay payments at a time when many victims will be facing limited life expectancies as a result of their infections from the contaminated blood. “There is a concern that the leadership election in which you are taking part is delaying a decision on this vital matter,” he continued.
“This could be avoided if all remaining candidates were prepared to commit now to making an interim payment of the kind recommended by Sir Robert within days of taking office as Prime Minister. Such a commitment from all five would allow the Civil Service to commence work now on the necessary arrangements and thereby minimise further delay, hardship and anxiety for those affected.
“Are you prepared to make that pledge?”
He closed the letter by asking each candidate to make their response public.
What the Government has to say
A Department of Health and Social Care Spokesperson said: "The infected blood tragedy should never have happened and the ongoing public inquiry was set up to get to the truth and give families the answers they deserve.
“We are committed to co-operating fully with the inquiry and will carefully consider any recommendations.”
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