A victim of the blood contamination scandal says he expects the fight to continue following the publication today of the damning findings of the long-running public inquiry.
Sir Brian Langstaff, who has chaired the six-year inquiry, today declared victims had been failed “not once but repeatedly” by the NHS, government and doctors, among others and been exposed to “unacceptable risks”.
His 2,500 page report added: “Standing back and viewing the response of the NHS and of government, the answer to the question ‘was there a cover-up?’ is that there has been. Not in the sense of a handful of people plotting in an orchestrated conspiracy to mislead, but in a way that was more subtle, more pervasive and more chilling in its implications. To save face and to save expense, there has been a hiding of much of the truth.
“Over decades, successive governments repeated lines to take that were inaccurate, defensive and misleading.
“Its persistent refusal to hold a public inquiry, coupled with a defensive mindset that refused to countenance that wrong had been done, left people without answers and without justice. This has also meant that many people who are chronically ill have felt obliged to devote their time and their energies to investigating and campaigning, often at great personal cost.”
The report does not hold back its punches and will be seen as one of the most damning of successive governments ever published.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to issue an apology, on behalf of the government, in the House of Commons later today.
It is estimated around 30,000 people were infected with illnesses such as HIV and Hepatitis C after receiving infected blood products used during the 1970s and 80s. More than 3,000 have died and continue to do so, with the number of deaths added to an estimated one every four days.
The haemophiliac community was particularly hard hit. Haemophilia is a condition which prevents the blood from clotting normally - meaning bleeds can be long and damaging.
The best course of action, the NHS then believed, was to treat them with a blood product called Factor VIII - something of a wonder treatment at the time. Administered to assist with blood clotting during, for example, medical procedures, it would be the root cause of what would become the contaminated blood scandal.
In short, the NHS ordered in supplies from the US where the blood used in the product had been sourced from a wide variety of sources - among them prisoners and drug addicts, anyone willing to be paid to give blood. The result? Any disease they carried was then exported in the product and pumped into the systems of haemophiliacs in the UK.
Those receiving blood transfusions also became infected.
Roger Newman, 55, from Whitstable, was one of those infected. At 16, was given the devastating news he was HIV+ at the height of the stigma attached to it. He also was infected with Hepatitis C.
“I’ve heard so much of the evidence and it’s powerful to have it told and believed.
“Justice has to be done,” he explained. “That's the key thing. The government need to really get a move on with recompense for all those that are still alive and for the estates of those families that have lost people.
“That action needs to happen immediately.
“I want the Prime Minister to acknowledge successive governments have not just made mistakes but consciously hidden truths from us and are liable for so many deaths.
“The inquiry has been emotionally harrowing, there's no doubt about that, but it's also been incredibly poignant because, for the first time, we feel like someone's got our back.
“We feel listened to at last and we feel that we have a voice. For the first time in history, significant people who have been involved in this have been called to give evidence under oath. That's been really important.
It has been very long. And painful at times, but it has also helped a sense of community in many ways. And and I feel that it's it's been quite cathartic as well to kind of hear other people's stories and to feel connected to a wider community.
“I don't have any trust or faith in the government.
“I think this isn't going to be the end of the campaign. I think we will still be fighting for some years to come in terms of parts of our community that have not had fair justice and recompense.”
Other Kent victims include Steve Dymond from Broadstairs. He contracted Hepatitis C which caused him to develop cancer.
Desperate to attend the inquiry and give evidence, he tragically died in December 2018, just before he had the chance to do so.
His wife, Su Gorman, continued the fight on his behalf, becoming active within the Tainted Blood campaign group. After giving evidence at the inquiry she died last summer from heart failure - not living to see the outcome of an inquiry she had fought so hard for.
