Infected blood victims 'deserve apology and proper compensation'

Thousands of victims of an NHS blunder involving contaminated blood today demanded an official apology from the Government.

Treatment with imported blood that had not been properly screened exposed victims including children to viruses such as Aids and hepatitis C. The scandal - which left more than 2,000 people dead and many terminally ill - was described as a "horrific human tragedy" by a long-awaited independent report published today.

Lord Archer of Sandwell, who chaired the investigation, criticised ministers for failing to respond earlier to the disaster by halting imports of infected blood from countries including the US during the Seventies and Eighties. The former solicitor general said subsequent health crises such as variant CJD, the human form of mad cow disease, could have been avoided if officials had taken swift action.

Lord Archer said at today's report publication: "This matter is by no means closed. We are discovering viruses now that we didn't know existed. There could have been a system in place (if action had been taken earlier). And issues such as CJD might have been foreseen and even avoided.

"If you step on someone's foot on a crowded train then you may not yourself be to blame but you say 'sorry'. It (apologising) might help achieve closure."

The Government is now under pressure to provide a new compensation deal for survivors.

Evidence presented to the inquiry showed that widows and children have suffered as a result of inadequate financial settlements.

One of the recommendations is that the existing settlement system is overhauled. No figure was given for possible new compensation levels, but Irish victims have already benefited by at least £100,000 from a similar scheme set up in their country.

Lord Archer recommended that victims should also be entitled to health care not automatically available on the NHS such as counselling, home nursing and physiotherapy. They would gain access to this care through a special card-holder system.

The report revealed that doctors and government officials knew as far back as the mid-Seventies that blood and blood products carried a danger of infection from viruses.

But blood continued to be imported from countries such as the US where donors included paid prison inmates.

The full scale of the contamination scandal only began to emerge at the height of Britain's Aids scare.

Ministers have consistently refused funding for a formal public investigation and refused to provide any evidence to this inquiry.

Campaigners said they welcomed the inquiry report and the "tireless" work of the inquiry team.

Chris James, chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, said: "Successive governments have shamefully refused to fund a public inquiry and an independent inquiry held in public was the only way forward if the voices of those infected and the bereaved was ever to be heard.

"We are immensely grateful to Lord Archer and his inquiry team for their tireless endeavours to reveal the truth depth of this disaster."