7 hours agoShareSaveSian VivianBBC Wales InvestigatesWyre DaviesBBC Wales InvestigatesShareSaveVictims of infected blood are dying “two a week” while awaiting compensation for the biggest scandal in the history of the NHS, campaigners say.More than 30,000 people in the UK were given treatments infected with HIV and Hepatitis C between the late 1970s and early 1990s, resulting in more than 3,000 deaths.Tony Summers, 89, whose son died after being given infected blood products, said he was told he may not receive compensation until 2029 and fears he might be dead before then.A Labour MP described the delay as “embarrassing”, while the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) said its priority was to pay compensation to “as many people as soon as possible”.In May 2024, a public inquiry found the authorities had covered up the scale of what is now known as the infected blood scandal.In response, the UK government set aside £11.8bn to compensate the victims – including parents, children and siblings – of which there could be as many as 140,000.But many victims, charities and the inquiry’s chair, Sir Brian Langstaff, have expressed concern about the way compensation is being implemented and the time it is taking.Forty people have accepted offers of compensation, and 18 people – less than 1% of those eligible – have received compensation so far, according to the IBCA.’I just want this to be over’Family PhotoMr Summers’ son Paul was diagnosed with HIV and Hepatitis C after being given a blood clotting product used to treat haemophilia.He died in 2008 at the age of 44.”I just feel so proud of what [Paul] achieved, because he had so much to offer,” said Mr Summers, from Llantwit Major in the Vale of Glamorgan.”I would like to feel that everything we started in 1984, which has been a long journey, we won’t have lost it. “We will have achieved and that will give me more satisfaction than anything. Just to feel that we did the right thing.”It’s probably the most important thing in my life to get to the end of this, to get closure. I just want this to be over.”Mr Summers claims to have been told he may not receive compensation until 2029 – five years after the inquiry’s final report was published.”By then I’ll be 93, you begin to have doubts,” he said.”People are still dying from any affected illnesses. Parents are dying. So it feels as though there’s a policy [of] ‘if we hang on long enough we won’t have to pay that money’.”‘People are dying two a week’Lynne Kelly, chair of Haemophilia Wales, said people wanted closure after campaigning for more than four decades. “People are dying two a week at the moment, so we’re in a …
