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Rishi Sunak has been urged to turn his attention to other long-standing injustices in the wake of his action to exonerate wrongly convicted postmasters over the Horizon IT scandal.
After the prime minister exonerated hundreds of postmasters wrongly-prosecuted by the Post Office, paving the way for them to receive compensation, he has been told to roll out compensation to victims of the infected blood scandal.
In the 1970s and 1980s, thousands died in what is widely recognised as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS after being given blood products contaminated with HIV and Hepatitis C.
Under an initial compensation scheme, only victims themselves or bereaved partners can receive an interim payment of about £100,000.
Victims of the infected blood scandal have been waiting years for proper compensation
(Factor 8)
And ministers have said they will not take action to further compensate victims until an official inquiry into the scandal has been published, expected in March.
But Dame Diana Johnson, chair of parliament’s home affairs committee, said victims cannot wait as “people are dying”.
She joined senior politicians in calling for ministers to act over the scandal, after the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, led to change after years of inaction.
Dame Diana told The Independent: “It’s really frustrating. And obviously, it’s great the publicity that Mr Bates and the Post Office got and that the government has now done something quickly. But it is a bit galling when you can see that they could do the same if they wanted to, because it’s all set out very clearly by the judge what they need to do.”
Urging the PM to take action quickly, she added: “The recommendations have all been made to the government. There’s no need to wait. They could pay out now.
“The key point everyone keeps saying is that one person dies on average every four days… people are dying.”
Dame Diana Johnson (fourth from left), Jason Evans (fifth from left) and Damian Green (sixth from left) and other campaigners in Downing Street with a letter calling for faster compensation for victims of the infected blood scandal
(PA)
Meanwhile the mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham told The Independent that MPs need to look at “how it looks to the country” leaving long-running scandals unresolved.
“These are matters of life and death,” he said.
Addressing the infected blood scandal, Mr Burnham said: “There are thousands of people whose lives were cut short, people living with chronic illness, descendants getting infected and families ruined.
“They all are, until something like the TV drama happened, they are just all in the wilderness shouting away for years and everybody ignores them.
“It is downright appalling.”
Mr Burnham, who served as health secretary during the last Labour government, also said people have “not got time” to wait for Sir Brian Langstaff to publish his inquiry’s report. And he said the number of people who have died waiting for compensation is “shameful”.
“This has been running since the 70s under successive governments, with thousands of letters written by MPs, countless debates and nothing has changed,” he told The Independent.
Sir Brian has said relatives, including parents who lost children and children orphaned when their parents died, remain “unrecognised” when it comes to compensation.
It comes as Jason Evans, whose father died due to Aids after being infected by dangerous Factor VIII blood products, said the government’s response to the Post Office drama has brought “hope” but also a “sense of urgent disparity”.
“While I applaud the government’s actions to rectify the injustices faced by the victims of the Post Office scandal, I can’t help but draw parallels to the plight of those affected by the infected blood scandal,” he wrote in The Independent.
Mr Evans said it is “time for the government to step up and right the wrongs of the past”, as justice for the victims of the infected blood scandal “has been delayed too long”.
Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt said last week it will not take an ITV drama for compensation to victims of the infected blood scandal to be resolved.
While she defended the government’s actions in trying to resolve “some very difficult and long-running issues”, Ms Mordaunt also said she would speak to the Cabinet Office to ensure lessons are learned “particularly” from the last few weeks.
Meanwhile Des Collins, senior partner of Collins Solicitors advising 1,500 victims and families affected by the infected blood scandal, said governments have been “expert at avoidance and delay over many, many years”.
He told The Independent: “First there was a refusal to admit mistakes had been made in the use of Infected Blood Products. More recently, the Government has talked of accepting the moral case for compensation yet these words have not been matched by action. Those victims left are still dying without proper compensation and the families of the bereaved continue to be treated shoddily, despite all they too have suffered.”
He said infected blood victims need an apology and full compensation, as well as lessons being learned to ensure similar scandals “can never happen again”.
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