Infected blood inquiry: Scottish victims hopeful of justice

Scottish victims of the contaminated blood scandal are hopeful that a UK-wide public inquiry will deliver justice and accountability five years after a previous report was branded a whitewash.

Around 3,000 Scots were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s contained in contaminated blood products, largely given to haemophiliacs, and via whole blood transfusions.

The Infected Blood Inquiry chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff will hear from victims in Edinburgh for the next two weeks as part of a nationwide evidence-gathering process.

The hearings come four years after a previous Scotland-only inquiry chaired by Lord Penrose concluded – to the anger of victims and their relatives – by making just a single recommendation after a six-year process.

Copies of the Penrose report were burned on the street after its publication, with victims and their families deeply dismayed at a process many considered high handed and lacking sensitivity.

Campaigners and victims have declared themselves cautiously optimistic that this inquiry will deliver where the Penrose Inquiry failed.

“We are a bit more cautious in Scotland, we are optimistic but cautiously optimistic,” said Bill Wright, chairman of Haemophilia Scotland, himself infected with Hepatitis C.

“We have been through a harrowing experience with the Penrose Inquiry, but we very much admire the approach of Sir Brian Langstaff and his team. They have put the patients at the centre of this, it is much more inclusive but we are tired and weary, so we will wait and see.”

John Rice, whose wife was infected with Hepatitis C, is convener of the Scottish Infected Blood Forum, which provides advice and support to those affected.

He is urging the inquiry to recommend greater financial support for victims immediately.

“People have lost jobs, they have had to pay for treatment, they can’t get mortgages, they can’t get insurance, they need help with everyday bills like food and heating,” he said.

“We would like an early recommendation to be that the government should provide proper financial support for everyone, they don’t need to wait.”

Among those giving evidence will be Gill Fyffe, infected with Hepatitis C in a transfusion in 1988 after giving birth to her daughter.

Undiagnosed for seven years, she then endured years of treatment that cleared the infection but left her with an auto-immune deficiency which means she cannot face direct sunlight, or even the glow of a computer screen, without her skin swelling and suppurating.

She says the new inquiry has already helped her and her family.

“What has happened to me and to the family is given official legitimacy by the inquiry. For years we have had to explain what has happened without anyone understanding but now more people know,” she told Sky News.

“Government after government has failed to deal with the financial support and recognitions, but after what I call 30 years of silence, what’s happened is being acknowledged, and it makes you feel human again.”

The Langstaff inquiry represents a second chance to examine what happened in Scotland, where some of the circumstances are unique.

While the source of infection in many blood products dispensed in England was the US prison system, the Penrose Inquiry established that Scottish prisoners were also considered a useful source of blood.

Blood was sourced at Barlinnie jail in Glasgow and other prisons, where there was a higher than average incidence of HIV and Hepatitis C than in the general population.

Last year the Scottish government agreed an improved package of financial support for victims, worth £37,000 to those with HIV and £27,000 to Hepatitis C sufferers.

For the first time it also paid three-quarters of that amount to widows, who had previously received no support.

Earlier this year, the British government announced an increase in support for English victims to match Scottish rates, but it has not yet been matched in Northern Ireland.

Campaigners want a UK-wide regime, as well as proper compensation for the harm done by the NHS, something the government has long resisted and victims believe may have motivated a cover-up by officials.

Later this month, the inquiry will hear evidence in Cardiff before returning to London for a further three weeks in the autumn.

It will then move on to examination of institutional and medical witnesses, and is expected to take around two years to conclude.

(c) Sky News 2019: Infected blood inquiry: Scottish victims hopeful of justice