The infected blood scandal could largely have been avoided and there was a cover-up to hide the truth, an inquiry has concluded . Patients were knowingly exposed to unacceptable risks of infection, the inquiry found, and deliberate attempts were made to conceal the disaster, including by Whitehall officials destroying documents. The 2,527-page report documents a “catalogue of failures” which had “catastrophic” consequences, not only for people infected with contaminated blood and blood products, but their loved ones.
Here we take a look at who the report says is responsible for the failings and who can be credited with bringing them to light. Who is responsible? Governments and politicians Successive governments are primarily to blame for the “catalogue” of “systemic, collective and individual failures” that allowed the infected blood scandal to happen, though “others share some of it”, the chair of the inquiry, Sir Brian Langstaff, writes. The report castigates the historical government response to the emergence of the risks of treating people with contaminated blood and blood products.
In the 1980s, the government decided against any form of compensation to people infected with HIV, with the health minister at the time, Ken Clarke, saying there would be no state scheme to compensate those suffering “the unavoidable adverse effects” of medical procedures. The then-prime minister, Margaret Thatcher , rebuffed calls for compensation by asserting in 1989.
