ITV has announced a drama on the contaminated blood scandal, widely considered to be one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in NHS history, after the success of its series on the Post Office.
The drama, which is being written by the Bafta award-winning screenwriter Peter Moffat, will show how people with haemophilia and other blood disorders were contaminated with blood infected with HIV and Hepatitis C, the American media site Deadline reported.
Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which aired on ITV last month, led to public outrage over the hundreds of people who were wrongly convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting based on the Post Office’s flawed Horizon IT system. It has led to renewed attempts to ensure those involved are adequately compensated.
Moffat’s show will examine what doctors, politicians and big pharmaceutical companies knew at the time people were being contaminated in the 1970s and 1980s.
Moffat said he hoped the show could be a pathway for those affected by the scandal to be heard. He said: “It’s been a great privilege to meet those infected and affected and to learn about what they have been through.
“I’m ashamed to say that when I started researching this story I knew next to nothing about it. I’m even more ashamed that this ignorance is shared by nearly everyone I mention it to. The victims of this scandal have been let down again and again by the state – I hope in some small way this drama can help their voices be heard.”
About 2,900 people are believed to have died between 1970 and 2019 after being given factor VIII blood products that were contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C imported from the US in the 1970s and 1980s, or after being exposed to tainted blood through transfusions or after childbirth. It is estimated that one person who was infected is dying in the UK every four days.
In 2022, the infected blood inquiry was created to investigate how the transfusions during the blood scandal were allowed to take place. While interim compensation payments of £100,000 have been made to some victims and bereaved partners, the inquiry’s recommendation regarding similar payments for bereaved children and parents, made in April last year, has not been implemented.
Des Collins, a solicitor and adviser to about 1,500 victims of the scandal and their families, said they had “long been approached” by documentary makers and it was great news that ITV was committing a budget which he hoped would “refocus” public attention.
He added: “Viewers won’t fail to be moved by this compelling story of the worst treatment scandal in NHS history. Sadly it remains a devastating reality for many.
“We live in hope that, unlike the Post Office victims, it won’t take a TV drama to air before justice and compensation is secured for our clients and the whole infected blood community. All eyes will be on the inquiry’s final report in May and the government’s subsequent response to it. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
