Campaigners are to hand-deliver a letter to Boris Johnson on Monday urging him to deliver immediate interim payments to victims of the contaminated blood scandal before more of them die.
The delegation, including people from all four UK home nations, want the prime minister to implement without delay the recommendation for interim compensation made by Sir Robert Francis QC in his government-commissioned report.
About 3,000 people are believed to have died and thousands more been infected as a result of the scandal, which has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS. It resulted from haemophiliacs being given factor VIII blood products that were contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C imported from the US in the 1970s and 80s and patients being exposed to tainted blood through transfusions or after childbirth.
The letter, signed by groups including the Terrence Higgins Trust, the Hepatitis C Trust and the Haemophilia Society, says that 419 people died between July 2017, when the inquiry was announced, and February this year and that it has been reported infected people are dying at a rate of one every four days.
Another signatory, Glenn Wilkinson, 57, of the Contaminated Blood Campaign, said: “With Boris Johnson now stepping down, this would be one positive thing he could do before he leaves – to start the process of compensation. We don’t want to be here in another two or three years’ time, when eventually compensation’s paid, assuming it will be, with another couple of hundred people dead who won’t see the benefit of any support and any compensation.
“Sir Robert has been very clear regarding the interim payments. I think he recognises that there is a huge death toll, a continuing death toll and you can see that people need the support now.”
Wilkinson, a haemophiliac, was infected with hepatitis C in 1983 during a dental procedure after being given factor VIII but did not find out until 1995. He has suffered serious liver disease as a consequence. He hopes to be at Downing Street on Monday, when the letter will be delivered to coincide with Francis giving evidence at the infected blood inquiry.
In his report published last month, Francis said interim payments “should be made now”, suggesting a figure of £100,000 as the minimum compensation any infected person could expect to receive.
The letter, written by Joyce Donnelly, the convener of the Scottish Infected Blood Forum, says: “Most infected people and their family/carers have endured hardship and poverty for many years. There simply has not been the money to buy the family home in preparation for passing it on to spouses and children.
“There has not been the money for a memory-creating family holiday. There has not been the money for many of the other nice things which most families enjoy.
“The fear lingers of death running faster than the inquiry process can, followed by the ensuing government considerations before it acts. Interim payments appear to be a reasonable and practical stopgap which would make a massive difference to people.”
The government said it was considering Francis’s recommendations and that that process would include listening to his evidence, and that of others, to the inquiry.
