Compensation?

[UncleEbenezer]

Yesterday's headlines: compensation for victims of contaminated blood in the 1970s and 80s.

They had some in-depth commentary on t'wireless last night. These were patients with very serious conditions, and the alternative to the treatment was a high likelihood they'd die. And the technology didn't exist back then to test the blood for the contamination. So the treatment was what kept them alive, and the reason many are still alive today.

Leaving aside questions of whether they should be treated differently to others with serious lifelong medical conditions, it also begs practical questions.

Suppose for instance you or I (not being medically qualified) see someone collapsed and not breathing. Ring 999, and the ambulance folks instruct us what to do. Give the kiss of life, but unknowingly have covid and pass it to the patient, who then recovers from the original incident but dies of covid. Would that not be a totally analogous case, deserving the same compensation?

[AF62]

And the technology didn't exist back then to test the blood for the contamination.

The solution was not to import blood products from countries with a high prevalence of hepatitis such as America, and particularly not to use blood from paid donors that included prisoners and drug addicts.

But that was what the UK did despite strong advice from the World Health Organisation not to do so.

The government owned a plant that produced the product and it was visited by the Medicines Inspectorate in 1979. They reported that the buildings were never designed for the scale of production envisaged and commented: 'If this were a commercial operation we would have no hesitation in recommending that manufacture should cease until the facility was upgraded to a minimum acceptable level'.

But the plant was covered by Crown Immunity and simply carried on as before.

And that is before you get to the issue of numerous governments refusing to hold a public enquiry and when a private enquiry was conducted the relevant evidence was found to have been mysteriously disposed of with nobody knowing who did it or why they did it.

Suppose for instance you or I (not being medically qualified) see someone collapsed and not breathing. Ring 999, and the ambulance folks instruct us what to do. Give the kiss of life, but unknowingly have covid and pass it to the patient, who then recovers from the original incident but dies of covid. Would that not be a totally analogous case, deserving the same compensation?

No it wouldn’t - unless you knew you probably had covid because of (say) your working environment, the 999 team told you to give treatment rather than sending an ambulance to save money, and when anyone questioned why the patient caught covid and suffered the effects that everyone in authority said “sorry not talking, and by the way the records have been lost”.

So no, it is a scandal and those infected and subsequently suffered are due compensation - and having worked with one of the people infected and seen how it impacted their life and health, then frankly the amount being offered is a pittance in comparison to what they have endured.

Sorry, bit too serious of an answer for here.

[88V8]

Rather like the Post Office scandal those responsible will never be held to account, and the taxpayer will be lumbered with the compensation costs.
All a bit banana republic.

Ironic that it happened under the blessed Margaret, and will sort of be resolved under the beatific Boris.

V8

[scrumpyjack]

Rather like the Post Office scandal those responsible will never be held to account, and the taxpayer will be lumbered with the compensation costs.
All a bit banana republic.

Ironic that it happened under the blessed Margaret, and will sort of be resolved under the beatific Boris.

V8

<grump mode on>
Well I guess it's down to the Blob and the Sir Humphreys. Politicians come and go but the Blob goes on forever, never sacking anyone and accruing lovely index linked pensions!
<grump mode off>

[UncleEbenezer]

Sorry, bit too serious of an answer for here.

Not too serious. You've done what the mainstream media failed, and offered an explanation that's credible and doesn't provoke an instant "but ..." from my inner cynic, of what should've been done better. Thank you.

There's still a whiff of exceptionalism when compared to victims of Bad Things that fail to make the news. But that's inevitable: if you're going to suffer misfortune and injustice, far better to be part of an identifiable group suffering it and getting attention than to suffer in isolation.