UK announces compensation for victims of blood scandal that killed 3,000 people

NEW DELHI: Britain on Tuesday said that it would begin making further interim compensation payments to victims of the blood scandal that had led to the death of over 3,000 people in the 1970s to the early 1990s.
"The government will be making further interim payments ahead of the establishment of the full scheme," minister John Glen told Parliament on Tuesday.
"Payments of 210,000 pounds will be made to living infected beneficiaries," he added.
The government's decision comes a day after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a "wholehearted unequivocal apology for this terrible injustice" and promised a "comprehensive compensation" to those affected.
Sunak's "unequivocal apology" was in the backdrop of a damning report that blamed the successive UK governments, officials and doctors for failures and cover-ups.
The report found that British authorities and the country's public health service knowingly exposed tens of thousands of patients to deadly infections like HIV/Aids and Hepatitis C through contaminated blood and blood products, and hid the truth about the disaster for decades.
These tainted batches were imported from the United States and widely administered to patients during for nearly two decades. The infections occurred due to the lack of testing for HIV/AIDS until 1986 and Hepatitis C until 1991 in the United Kingdom.
"This is a day of shame for the British state, The result of this inquiry should shake our nation to its core," Sunak told the British Parliament on Monday.
He told the MPs, "I want to make a wholehearted and unequivocal apology for this terrible injustice," and vowed to pay "whatever it costs" to make amends for the victims and their families.
After a five-year investigation, Langstaff in his report noted that "The scale of what happened is horrifying. The most accurate estimate is that more than 3,000 deaths are attributable to infected blood, blood products and tissue".
Langstaff's report also addresses the question of a cover-up, stating, "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."
The extensive 2,527-page, seven-volume document delves into the immense scale of the scandal and presents a series of recommendations. These include the swift implementation of a compensation scheme for those directly affected and those who have lost loved ones as a result of this tragedy.
(With Reuters input)