UK fast-tracks payments for blood scandal victims

Bangkok Post Group

Britain said on Tuesday some victims of a contaminated blood scandal would receive interim payments of 210,000 pounds ($267,000) each before a scheme to pay "comprehensive compensation" is up and running, ideally by the end of the year. - REUTERS

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00:00 We are establishing the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, an arms-length body to administer the compensation scheme.

00:08 The British government on Tuesday said it would set up a body to pay compensation to victims of a tainted blood scandal,

00:13 and added that many were eligible for interim payments of over $260,000 each,

00:19 even before a plan to pay comprehensive compensation is up and running.

00:24 That comes a day after a damning report that blamed the state and doctors for failures that killed over 3,000 people.

00:30 Here's Cabinet Minister John Glenn in Parliament.

00:33 If you have been directly or indirectly infected by NHS blood, blood products,

00:42 or tissue contaminated with HIV or hepatitis C,

00:47 or have developed a chronic infection from blood contaminated with hepatitis B,

00:54 you will be eligible to claim compensation under the scheme.

00:59 Victims and their families held a vigil in Westminster on Sunday.

01:03 Blood transfusions administered by Britain's state-funded National Health Service in the 1970s and 1980s

01:09 resulted in more than 30,000 people contracting hepatitis and HIV.

01:14 Much of the donated blood was sourced from high-risk groups, such as prisoners, and pooled together.

01:20 This is a day of shame for the British state.

01:23 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a "whole-hearted, unequivocal apology" for this terrible injustice on Monday.

01:29 Glenn said that for victims who had died, compensation would be paid to their estates.

01:34 People who cared for victims, such as partners and parents, could apply for compensation in their own right, he said.

01:40 The government did not set out a budget.

01:42 However, press reports have put the total cost at more than £10 billion, or $12.7 billion.

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