This is a long one, but worth reporting. The UK's National Health Service (NHS) was engaged in a 40-year cover-up of giving infected blood to patients -- something that resulted in the spread of HIV, hepatitis, and other blood-borne disease.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak issued an apology to families, assuring they'd be compensated after an inquiry found a 'string' of government cover-ups in the scandal.
Thousands dead, 40 years of cover-up: it’s time for justice for infected blood victims.
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 20, 2024
Here's how a campaign by The Sunday Times uncovered one of the biggest scandals in NHS history 🧵
✍️ @cazjwheelerhttps://t.co/cU7EubaaCd
While the above article is paywalled, here's some background from a non-paywalled article via The Times:
Decades of failure and cover-up by the British state has been set out today as the infected blood inquiry publishes its final report into how tens of thousands of people contracted diseases such as hepatitis C and HIV through being given contaminated blood products.
Rishi Sunak responded to Sir Brian Langstaff’s report with an apology to the victims for the British state’s repeated failure to recognise the harm it had caused and for not remedying it sooner. He said the victims would be “comprehensively compensated” in line with the inquiry’s recommendations. Families of those affected are demanding answers after being met with denial and delay by successive governments and NHS leaders going back decades.
Dame Diana Johnson said this government had “added another layer of hurt” for victims after it failed to provide compensation following a document published by the inquiry last year.
The interim report was released in April 2023 and in it the inquiry’s chairman, Sir Brian Langstaff, called for a payment scheme to be set up by the end of the year.
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And here's more of the thread that shares some of the heartbreaking stories.
Decades of failure and cover-up by the British state has been set out today as the infected blood inquiry publishes its final report into how tens of thousands of people contracted diseases such as hepatitis C and HIV through being given contaminated blood products ⬇️… pic.twitter.com/cSPSrlfPUT
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 20, 2024
Wow.
First, let us tell you a story about a boy named Colin Smith ⬇️https://t.co/w62wZV1JYr
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 20, 2024
Colin Smith was the freckle-faced blond-haired baby of a family of four boys.
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 20, 2024
When he was seven, in 1990, Colin Smith died of Aids pic.twitter.com/3Gmq8PqDfP
This is utterly heartbreaking.
He had been diagnosed with severe haemophilia, a rare blood disorder, as a baby and his parents were convinced to transfer his care from the Royal Gwent Hospital, near their home in Newport, South Wales, to Heath Hospital in Cardiff, under the care of Professor Arthur Bloom
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 20, 2024
It was a decision they would bitterly regret.
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 20, 2024
Their son became part of a generation of haemophiliac children almost wiped out after NHS doctors used them as guinea pigs in medical experiments and trials
And incredibly horrifying.
They were given contaminated blood products riddled with deadly diseases without their knowledge or consent ⬇️https://t.co/ASQBtbEtzs
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 20, 2024
What an incredible abuse of patients.
Whatever the cause, the effect is clear.
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 20, 2024
The death rate among the victims of this scandal, the worst treatment disaster in NHS history, has started to accelerate
Between July 2017, when the public inquiry was announced, and January this year, there were 680 such deaths.
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 20, 2024
Every 3½ days the death toll goes up by one ⬇️https://t.co/O4LdqBZquF
Just awful.
Do read the entire thing.
There are a lot of takeaways here, but the biggest one is that government -- running the health care system -- covered up the abuses of patients for decades, and continues to drag its feet in providing justice and compensation to the patients whose lives have been cut short.
It's been seven years since the public inquiry was announced and compensation will go out by the end of this year.
And while there's talk of the leaders going to prison, the damage is done.
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