£100,000 to tainted blood victims

VICTIMS of the tainted blood scandal should be urgently compensated £100,000 each as many are ‘worryingly unwell’ and running out of time, a review has said.

Sir Robert Francis QC urged ministers to immediately make the interim payments to those who contracted HIV and hepatitis in what has been called ‘the worst treatment disaster in NHS history’.

Up to 30,000 Britons were infected in the Seventies and Eighties after being treated with cheap US blood products. Some 3,000 have died but, as the Government never admitted liability, victims did not receive compensation.

Sir Robert, who led the Governmentordered review, said he had recommended the measure since many victims fear ‘they will not survive long enough to see... the fruits of [compensation]’.