Contaminated Blood (Support for Infected and Bereaved Persons) Bill [HL]

Baroness Hussein-Ece Excerpts

Friday 22nd October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hussein-Ece]

My Lords, I am grateful to be able to contribute to this debate on this important Bill. Unfortunately, I see from recent debates in Hansard that this is a long-running and much debated issue that has not yet been concluded. More importantly, the victims and families affected have not had the justice that they deserve.

As a new Member of your Lordships’ House, I come to this matter with a fresh outlook, and have been surprised and disappointed at the apparent lack of urgency and what seems like prevarication over successive Governments and over the intervening decades in coming to a fair and just settlement. I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Morris, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer, for their tireless and exemplary work on this.

It is even more unfortunate, in my view, that a resolution was not arrived at in previous years, as the noble and learned Lord has just mentioned, when we did not face the economic pressures that we face today. The treatment of patients with contaminated blood has been described as one of the most tragic episodes in the history of the NHS; it has also been described as the “contaminated blood scandal”. It is hard to argue with either of these descriptions; through no fault of their own, patients were treated with contaminated blood products and many have subsequently suffered poor health, needing specialist help, treatment and support. Many more have sadly died. We also know that many have suffered, and are still suffering, exceptional hardship.

I was, however, a little heartened to read the public health Minister’s statement in the other place last week that, while ruling out a suggestion to match the compensation to those in the Irish Republic, as was mentioned earlier, she would look again at some aspects of the report of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer, and would report by Christmas this year. Although we know that this will disappoint many families and campaigners, at least it provides some movement and hope, and I welcome the review.

I feel that we have arrived at the last chance saloon, and that a resolution needs to be negotiated with the assistance of sufferers of hepatitis C, their families and carers and other interested parties. It cannot be right that we have such a disparity between sufferers who contracted HIV and those who contracted hepatitis C. We know that HIV has become a much more manageable disease than it once was, while hepatitis C is treated by a gruelling six to 12 months of antiviral therapy, which can have severe side effects comparable to chemotherapy and successfully clears the virus in only around 50 per cent of cases. We know that sufferers can develop cancer and other serious medical conditions.

As we heard earlier, many sufferers face continuing hardship and rely on handouts from charities. This is not sustainable or acceptable in the long term. For many, it means a lack of access to insurance, crippling prescription charges and a reliance on social care services, which have to be paid for, depending on their circumstances. Any form of compensation should be awarded on the basis of a needs assessment.

To pluck out one example, it seems very unfair that the dependants of those who died after 5 July 2004 can apply for support from the Skipton Fund only if the victim had applied to the fund before dying. This does not seem to take into account all the merits of each case. I hope that this can be looked at. I also welcome the intention to establish a proper appeal mechanism for those whose claims may be or have been rejected; that is very welcome.

Like others, I believe that it is the responsibility of the Government to address the needs of their citizens. It is a question not of blame but of doing the right thing—of ameliorating the ongoing suffering and distress. The added challenge in today’s climate is to achieve this within the economic constraints that we find ourselves in. Sufferers and families must be treated with decency and fairness. The many expressions of sympathy that we have heard over many years, and which I have read, have probably been welcome but will no longer pay the bills, offer support or address the exceptional hardship.

I welcome the review and support efforts to establish, within a limited period, a timetable to reach a conclusion to this matter. I hope that we are not going to wait another period of years until the matter resolves itself. The dwindling numbers of sufferers deserve our support; they deserve closure and justice.