28.03.2024

Victims of contaminated blood scandal denied financial support by arbitrary cut-off date

Carolyn Challis told The Independent her life had been dramatically affected by the virus, which left her with debilitating fatigue and other symptoms meaning she couldn’t work and was left to look after three children.

A woman infected with hepatitis C from contaminated blood has launched legal action after the government denied her financial support available to other victims despite accepting she was made sick by tainted blood.

With the help of lawyers from Leigh Day, she is bringing a judicial review against the Department of Health and Social Care, challenging what she believes is an arbitrary cut-off date for victims of the contaminated blood scandal to receive financial support including payments of a £20,000 sum and ongoing help.

The government has said only patients infected before September 1991 are eligible for the payments, but Ms Challis was infected at some stage between February 1992 and 1993 following three blood transfusions and a bone marrow transplant to treat Hodgkin’s Disease, a form of blood cancer.

The Hep C Trust told The Independent she was not the only person infected after 1991 and it has called for more widespread testing to identify what it warned was a hidden population of people infected with the virus, which can take 20 years to fully manifest itself in patients.

The contaminated blood scandal has been described as “the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS” by Lord Robert Winston, with as many as 5,000 people thought to have been infected with hepatitis C and HIV. At least 3,000 have died and many are living with serious disabilities.

The contaminated blood and plasma products were bought by the UK from countries like the USA which paid donors for blood.

The scandal is being examined by an ongoing public inquiry led by Sir Brian Langstaff.

The government established an initial scheme in 1987 with a £10 million grant to the Haemophilia Society to establish a trust. Eventually it established the English Infected Blood Support Scheme, now run by the NHS Business Services Authority. It can make one-off payments of £20,000 to victims as well as provide some on-going support but only for patients infected before September 1991.

Several witnesses to the public inquiry have said they were infected after the 1991 date and all have been refused support.

The inquiry has heard some blood and blood products that were purchased for use in the NHS before 1991 may have been stored and not used for months or years later meaning a risk patients were infected after that date.

Ms Challis, a 64-year-old mother of three, believes she was infected with Hepatitis C as a result of transfusions received between March 1992 and July 1993.

In 2020 she was told the evidence from her doctors was accepted but she would not receive any payments due to the cut-off date.

She told The Independent: “In the one breath, they say we accept you were given infected blood but then no, we can’t give you the money. I am sad that I haven’t been able to work. My career has been cut short. I’m angry that I haven’t been heard. I have a righteous anger for all of us who were infected, and I want justice for all of us.

“The effects of being infected have profoundly influenced my lifestyle over the past thirty years. My relationships and interactions with my family and friends changed completely. For many years I forgot what it was like to feel normal and even my ‘good’ days could only be considered good in comparison to really awful ones.”

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