Blood scandal families win ruling on damages
VICTIMS and their families involved in the contaminated blood scandal of the 1970s and 1980s have won a ruling allowing them to launch a High Court action to seek damages.
An official of the court said it was “appropriate” to immediately issue a group litigation order allowing a potential 500 claimants – surviving victims of contamination and the families of the deceased – to join together to claim compensation.
The official, Senior Master Fontaine, made the order despite opposition from lawyers acting for the Department of Health who argued the application was “premature”.
Thousands of NHS patients were given blood products from abroad that were infected with hepatitis C and HIV.
At least 2,400 people died, including 70 from Wales. It was caused by the NHS buying blood from suppliers in the United States who used “Skid Row” donors, such as prison inmates, more likely to have HIV and Hepatitis C.
The scandal has been described as one of the “worst treatment disasters in the history of the NHS” and was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, many of whom had been haemophilia patients.
David Thomas, a dad-of-two from Penarth, has spent the past three decades with hepatitis C after being given tainted blood as a teenager in the 1980s.
Reacting to the court ruling, he said: “It is not clear who the 500 claimants are, but we are all part of the same tragedy, so I initially see this as fantastic news. It is a positive step forward.”
But Mr Thomas said he was more interested in an inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal.
The Haemophilia Wales trustee said: “I see the inquiry as where the real truth is going to come out.”
Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman confirmed in July that a consultation will now take place, with those affected to decide exactly what form the inquiry will take, such as a Hillsborough-style independent panel or a judge-led statutory inquiry.
He said: “It is a tragedy that has caused immeasurable hardship and pain for all those affected and a full inquiry to establish the truth of what happened is the right course of action to take.
“It is going to be a wide-ranging inquiry.”
Details of the UK-wide investigation have yet to be finalised, but consultations have now taken place with those people affected as to how best to proceed.