“People will die before receiving compensation from the infected blood scandal” | News UK

A victim of the infected blood scandal has accused the government of “playing a waiting game” to pay compensation.

Steve Nicholls, 58, from Surrey, is one of the approximately 122 infected students who went to Treloars, a school for disabled children in Hampshire.

As a result of the injections he had given, Hepatitis A, B, C and Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) was left behind. Eighty of the boys died, he said.

He is now asking the government to accelerate its payments to the victims and families of the died people, and added that he fears that people will die before they receive compensation.

More than 30,000 people in Great Britain were infected with hepatitis and HIV after they had given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s without their knowledge that were known today as an infected blood scandal.

The school said it didn't know that the blood products were infected with HIV and hepatitis C and have apologized to the victims and their families since then.

Since then, over 3,000 infected people have died, and the number increases after one of the largest scandals that affect the NHS.

The victims included boys with hemophilia who visited the Treloars School, where they were infected without their parents' consent.

He told the service engineer who went to school at the age of nine metro: 'I got all of Treloars infections, but I only found it as 25 years old. I managed to hold a full -time job like all boys. ''

However, his health began to fall at around 40.

In the meantime, his mother and father – like hundreds of other parents of the infected – felt “extremely guilty” how they could not have registered us for medical research and his mother gave him the injections prescribed by doctors.

Steve, who is married and has grown up, said that he feels “tired” and “very tired, but I won't let it go until I see after 40 years of justice”.

He described the delay of compensation as “completely unacceptable”

He continued: “When people die before they claim a claim for compensation, in many cases in which compensation dies with them.

“It is difficult to conclude that the government plays a waiting game. It should be much easier and faster. '

He said that the infection scandal had “massive effects” on this family and other victims who “continue to suffer today”.

After years of tireless campaigns by victims and their relatives, the scandal made headlines, which led to an official examination by Sir Brian Langstaff.

Bombinghell documents previously compared how children of state-financed agencies were compared with chimpanzees as part of their plans for the use of blood plasma, which are known as a factor.

In the study it heard that documents from 1970 show how the scientists who were working on research knew that the factor blood products transmit this form of hepatitis to chimpanzees, 'the products still sent them to school and did not inform them.

The infected plasma was bought from the USA, where pharmaceutical companies had moved into the blood by mixing it from prisoners and paid donors. It was then sold to hospitals and schools for hemophilic children in Great Britain.

In order to make things worse, the details of the infections were widespread, a report last year.

While the investigation came to the conclusion in May last May and found that there was “catalog of errors” with “catastrophic” consequences, the exhausting waiting time for compensation for many took.

Last year, former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the findings of the investigation as a “day of shame” for the state.

Further hearings on the government's reaction to compensation took place this week, with victims and activists talking on Wednesday and yesterday.

Nick Thomas Symonds, a minister of cabinet office, was licked when he gave evidence. He apologized and told the victims and families in the room that the government had not passed them on behalf of the state for decades. I'm sorry.'

When he was asked whether both victims and those affected will die before compensation, he said “yes”.

The government has declared that it paid compensation of £ 80,000 of £ 11,800,000.

Steve, who campaigned for the infected, said morality was “on an all -time low”.

He said they could see the light at the end of the tunnel last year when the first examination concludes-but the relief was short-lived.

When he spoke of the hearing during a break, he said metro: 'We felt validated and recognized, we have fought for over 40 years to be recognized, and we thought we had achieved it and the rest would follow very quickly.

“But within two days the government had called the parliamentary elections, and we knew that we were able to see difficulties and delays.”

“Our numbers quickly reduce,” he added.

What happens next to victims?

The remuneration service should open up to 100 people per week, said the independent compensation body metro.

A spokesman for the infected blood compensation authority said: “Those who are affected by the infected blood scandal have waited for decades for recognition and compensation, and therefore our priority pays as soon as possible.

“We started in small, learned from every person who raises an assertion and continued to build this findings into our damage service while we have grown. So far, 677 people have been asked to start their claim for remuneration, and this number is growing, with more than 90 million GBP being offered for compensation.

“We are now opening our service for around 100 people per week. We assume that every living and infected person registered with support system can start their claim by the end of 2025, and we work through them as soon as possible. '

The Treloars School said in an explanation: “Since this week there are additional hearings to remedy the up -to -date and appropriateness of the reaction of the government to compensation after the report of the infected blood test 12 months ago, we would like to repeat the call made at the time to implement compensation plans without further delay.

'The report of the investigation dismissed the full extent of this terrible national scandal. We are deeply sad that some of our former students were so tragically infected and their families were affected, and we share the frustration of our former students about the time it takes to pay compensation.

“We actively work with our former students and their families to provide a permanent monument to those who have received infected blood products.”

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