More victims of the infected blood scandal will die without ever receiving full compensation, a government minister has said.The paymaster general Nick Thomas-Symonds was giving evidence to a special session of the public inquiry into what’s been called the worst treatment disaster in NHS history.It’s thought 30,000 patients in the UK were infected with HIV or hepatitis B and C after being treated with a contaminated blood clotting product or given a blood transfusion in the 1970s and 80s.Mr Thomas-Symonds agreed it was “profoundly unsatisfactory” that just 106 final compensation awards have been paid, almost a year after a damning report into the scandal was published.”I’m never going to think this is satisfactory until everybody has received the compensation that is due,” the Cabinet Office minister said.”The objective should be absolutely to pay [people] as soon as possible.”A final report into the scandal, published last year, found that the disaster could largely have been avoided if different decisions had been taken by the health authorities at the time.The report said too little was done to stop the importing of contaminated blood products from abroad in the 1970s and 80s, and there was evidence that elements of the scandal had been covered up.Last month the chair of the public inquiry, Sir Brian Langstaff, ordered two days of extra hearings after he received “letter after letter, email …
