At least £100,000 should be paid to all infected blood victims and bereaved partners across the UK, the chairman of the inquiry into the issue has said. The compensation should be paid “without delay” to those affected, Sir Brian Langstaff wrote in an interim report published on Friday.
The number of people who died in what has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS is approximately as high as 2,400.
The chairman said he had made the report in light of the inquiry hearing evidence of “profound physical and mental suffering” caused by the scandal. In a letter to Paymaster General Michael Ellis accompanying the report, Sir Brian said: “As you will read, it was the force of Sir Robert Francis QC’s recommendation of an interim payment, as amplified by him in the course of his oral evidence to the inquiry, that caused me to reflect on whether I should exercise my powers to make such a report.
