David Cameron says sorry on behalf of the government to thousands of people infected with Hepatitis C or HIV through contaminated blood or blood products used by the NHS in the 1970s and 1980s.
Angry relatives and victims had earlier shouted “whitewash” at a press conference after the final report of the Penrose Inquiry into what happened in Scotland was delivered.
Previously described by Lord Winston as “the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS”, between 1971 and 1991 over 30,000 NHS patients may have been were infected with Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products. Just under 6,000 have been identified.
Over 1,500 more were infected with HIV between 1978-1985.
Many of those affected had haemophilia, the rare bleeding disorber, for which the main treatment involved injections of blood factor concentrate to prevent internal bleeding.
Campaigners say 2,000 affected people have died, and have previously accused health authorities of failing to act quickly enough when the risks became known.
However the Penrose inquiry, which has taken six years in total, on Wednesday concluded that Scottish health authorities had done “all that could reasonably be done” when it came to blood donor selection, heat treatment of blood products and screening of donated blood.
It found that Scottish authorities should have recommended the introduction of screening for Hepatitis C by May 1990, rather than November 1990, and that Scottish ministers could have put screening into action earlier, rather than waiting for a UK-wide rollout of the programme on 1 September 1991.
In an emotional address to the Penrose press conference, Bill Wright of the charity Haemophilia Scotland, called for a decisive apology “after 30 years of waiting”.
Within the hour, David Cameron told MPs at prime minister’s questions he would like to recognise the “pain and suffering experienced by people as a result of this tragedy”, adding:”it is difficult to imagine the feelings of unfairness that peple must feel as a result of being infected by something like hepatitis C or HIV as a result of a totally unrelated treatement within the NHS, and to each and every one of those people I would like to say sorry on behalf of the governement for something that should not have happened.”
Mr Cameron also announced £25m in 2015-16 to fund a transition to a better payments system for victims of the tragedy who currently have to apply for ongoing payments to five trusts.
An all-party group of MPs found in Januarly 2015 that many trust beneficiaries find the application process demeaning and many trust beneficiaries are living in poverty, having to apply for grants and vouchers to buy basic goods and food.
Equally many eligible for support have yet to register with the scheme.
Experts who gave evidence to the Penrose inquiry concluded that the practice of collection blood donated by prisoners was inadvisable, and should have stopped earlier. The inquiry said it was “unfortunate” that the Scottish blood transfusion service had not considered this sooner, but concluded that the lack of evidence of the rising levels of drug abuse among prisoners meant it was not clear that such consideration would have led to any action.
Prisoner donations ceased in Scotland in 1984.
The Penrose report in flames. Campaigners angered by its contents – “£12million up in smoke” #c4news pic.twitter.com/jYoZTWKpac
— Robert Windscheffel (@RWindscheffel) March 25, 2015
Mr Cameron also announced £25m in 2015-16 to fund a transition to a better payments system for victims of the tragedy who currently have to apply for ongoing payments to five trusts.
An all-party group of MPs found in Januarly 2015 that many trust beneficiaries find the application process demeaning and many trust beneficiaries are living in poverty, having to apply for grants and vouchers to buy basic goods and food.
Equally many eligible for support have yet to register with the scheme.
Experts who gave evidence to the Penrose inquiry concluded that the practice of collection blood donated by prisoners was inadvisable, and should have stopped earlier.
The inquiry said while it was “unfortunate” that the Scottish blood transfusion service had not considered this sooner, the lack of evidence of the rising levels of drug abuse among prisoners at that time meant it was not clear that such consideration would have led to any action. Prisoner donations ceased in Scotland in 1984.
The report also found that Scottish authorities should have recommended the introduction of screening for Hepatitis C by May 1990, rather than November 1990, and that Scottish ministers could have put screening into action earlier, rather than waiting for a UK-wide rollout of the programme on 1 September 1991.
It recommended that the Scottish government should offer Hepatitis C tests to everyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 who hasn’t yet been tested.
The inquiry took six years, amassed over 118,000 documents on its database and cost £12m.