The support offered to individuals who contracted hepatitis C in England from NHS blood and blood products in the late1970s and 1980s is to be substantially increased, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced today following a three-month review.
The Government announced in October 2010 that they would be reviewing the financial and other support available to those affected. The review report has been published today together with a new package of financial support to those infected with hepatitis C.
To date, almost 4,300 people who were infected through their treatment have received payments. The review examined the clinical evidence for further support for these individuals, and also considered how best to provide support for families of those affected.
Currently, anyone with chronic hepatitis C contracted from contaminated blood receives a one-off payment of £20,000. A further £25,000 is paid if the disease progresses to more severe disease such as cirrhosis or liver cancer.
The new measures outlined by the Coalition Government for those with severe infection include:
- introducing an annual payment of £12,800, for those with the most serious hepatitis C-related disease from NHS blood transfusions and blood products, in line with that received by those infected with HIV;
- increasing the one-off payment already made to those with the most serious hepatitis C-related disease from £25,000 to £50,000;
- making discretionary payments for those most in need; and
- increasing the annual payments for both hepatitis C and HIV in line with the Consumer Price Index.
At present no payment can be made in respect of those with hepatitis C contracted from contaminated blood who passed away before the Skipton Fund was established.
This will now change and a posthumous claim can now be made on behalf of those who died prior to 29 August 2003. Payments will be made to the individual’s estate helping more families of those affected get financial support. This corrects an anomaly that has existed since the scheme was set up.
Other measures will also be introduced in England to make it easier and fairer for those affected by hepatitis C and HIV from contaminated blood to get broader support. Measures include:
- exempting these new payments from means-testing for social care services;
- providing the cost of an annual prescription pre-payment certificate to cover the cost of prescriptions for those who are not otherwise exempt from charging; and
- providing £100,000 a year for the next three years to selected national charities for counselling services for those affected.
Mr Lansley said:
“I fully recognise that the unintended and tragic consequences of these treatments have seriously impaired the lives of many people, together with those of their families.
“For too long those people infected with hepatitis C have received different support to those infected with HIV. We now intend to make the financial support for hepatitis C patients fairer and more comparable to the arrangements for those infected with HIV.
“We have listened carefully to the views of the families and campaigners themselves and I believe that changing the payment structure in England and offering the further assistance we have will improve the lives of these people and their families.”
Notes to editors
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For Further enquiries please contact the DH Newsdesk on 0207 210 5221.
- Copies of the Review can be downloaded here: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_123363
- There will now be a three month window for dependants to make claims on behalf of loved ones who have passed away. Anyone with hepatitis C who may be eligible under the new arrangements can find out more about what they need to do by contacting the Skipton Fund:
· online at: http://www.skiptonfund.org/Eng/index.html
· by email: apply@skiptonfund.org
· by phone: 020 7808 1160.
- The Skipton Fund was set up in 2003 as a company limited by guarantee.
- The principal activity of the company is to implement and manage the UK-wide ex gratia payments scheme for people infected with Hepatitis C from NHS treatment with blood, blood products or tissue.
- The company acts as agent for the Department of Health, which in turn acts for the health departments of the devolved administrations.
http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=417365&...
PDF version Review of the support available to individuals infected with Hepatitis C and/or HIV by NHS supplied blood transfusions or blood products and their dependants
On 14 October 2010, the Government announced that it would review the support available to those who had been infected with hepatitis C and/or HIV by NHS-supplied blood transfusions or blood products.
The review was conducted by the Department of Health, with input from external experts, including the Chairs of the Macfarlane and Eileen Trusts and the Skipton Fund.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/Publicati...
Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health, made a statement to the House of Commons on Monday 10 January on patients who contracted Hepatitis C and HIV from NHS blood and blood products during the 1970s and 1980s.
- Video and Audio: Statement on contaminated blood
- Commons Hansard: Statement on contaminated blood
- Topics: Health services and medicine
- About Parliament: Ministerial statements
Oral statements
Oral statements are made after Question Time (or at 11am on a Friday). Statements usually relate to matters of policy or government actions.
At the end of a statement, MPs can respond or question the government minister on its contents.
http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2011/january/statement-on-contami...
Jennifer Willott (Cardiff Central, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of people infected with (a) hepatitis C, (b) HIV/AIDS and (c) both hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS as a result of receiving contaminated blood or blood products in NHS facilities reside in (i) England, (ii) Wales and (iii) Scotland; and if he will make a statement.
Anne Milton (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Public Health), Health; Guildford, Conservative)
There are no data available on either the total number, or the proportion, of individuals infected with HIV and/or hepatitis C by contaminated national health service supplied blood and blood products, who reside in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. The only available data are for the total numbers infected in the United Kingdom who have registered with one of the ex gratia schemes (the Macfarlane Trust, the Eileen Trust or the Skipton Fund). The Macfarlane and Eileen Trusts do not hold data on where each of their claimants was infected. Of the registrants to the Skipton Fund, 3,317 were infected in hospitals in England, 120 in hospitals in Northern Ireland, 636 in hospitals in Scotland, and 226 in hospitals in Wales.
Our best estimate of the total number of individuals who were infected with HIV and hepatitis C are that 4,675 people with haemophilia in the UK were infected with hepatitis C, and published epidemiological estimates suggest that up to 28,043 other individuals might have been similarly infected with hepatitis C by whole blood transfusions in the UK. Over roughly the same period, approximately 1,200 people with haemophilia and 100 other individuals were infected with HIV by NHS-supplied blood products or blood transfusions. Separate figures specifically for AIDS are not collected.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-01-13a.33376.h&s=hiv#g33376.q0
Also see http://www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?s=hiv+segment%3A21177544
Blood campaigners ‘angry and let down’ by government’s final offer
Disabled campaigners say they feel “angry and let down” by the government’s decision to offer only a slight improvement to the compensation it will pay survivors of the NHS contaminated blood disaster.
More than 2,000 people with haemophilia have so far died as a result of being infected with hepatitis C and HIV through contaminated NHS blood and blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
Successive governments have resisted calls for more generous compensation and other measures to support survivors.
A review of the support available in England has ended with a government pledge to increase compensation for some of those infected by hepatitis C, at an estimated cost of between £100 million and £130 million over four years.
A report made it clear the decision not to make a more generous settlement was partly due to “affordability in the financial context of the current spending review”.
Mike Dorricott, a spokesman for TaintedBlood, the user-led group that campaigns for justice for those affected, said the package would help probably only one in five of those infected.
The package includes an increase in the one-off payments made to those with the most serious hepatitis C-related diseases, from £25,000 to £50,000, as well as a new annual payment of £12,800, to match the sum paid to those infected with HIV.
And all those infected with hepatitis C who are in “serious financial need” will be able to apply for discretionary payments for the first time.
Posthumous claims will also be allowed for the first time on behalf of those who died before 29 August 2003 after being infected with hepatitis C, but their dependants will only have three months to lodge a claim.
And those not already exempt will be able to ask the government to cover the cost of an annual prescription pre-payment certificate.
Dorricott said the “arbitrary” three-month deadline for dependants of those who died before 29 August 2003 was “disgraceful”.
He added: “There are some positives in the announcement but unfortunately they are very minor ones.”
Lord [Alf] Morris, whose contaminated blood private members’ bill is due to receive its second Commons reading on 11 February, called on the government to “meet the haemophilia community and listen again to its plea for a response that is more in keeping with the scale of the disaster”.
He made it clear to Disability News Service that he would not withdraw his bill, because the government’s announcement failed to meet the recommendations of the independent public inquiry set up by him and chaired by Lord Archer of Sandwell.
But Earl Howe, the junior health minister, told fellow peers: “We believe that this is a fair and reasonable package of support for these poor victims.”
And he added: “We do not intend to revisit it in the future.”
He said the government believed the deadline of the end of March “should be sufficient to enable those with a valid claim to come forward” because “on the whole...the victims’ families know who they are”.
Matthew Offord (Hendon, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department provides to GPs and health professionals to assist them in dealing with victims of contaminated blood.
Anne Milton (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Public Health), Health; Guildford, Conservative)
The Department is informing general practitioner (GPs) and other health care professionals through its regular bulletins, that if they have previously known a patient who had been infected with hepatitis C by national health service supplied blood or blood products and who died before 29 August 2003, they should contact the patient's representative(s) to advise them that they will be eligible to make a posthumous claim for an ex-gratia payment from the Skipton Fund.
There is generic information and advice about hepatitis C for GPs and other health care professionals on the NHS hepatitis C awareness website at:
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence have also published guidance on the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. Generic guidance on the treatment of HIV has been published by the British HIV Association.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-02-01a.37031.h&s=hiv#g37031.r0
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-03-22a.46377.h&s=hiv#g46377.r0
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-03-22a.47306.h&s=hiv#g47306.r0
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-03-22a.149.0&s=hiv#g149.1
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-03-22a.149.0&s=hiv+segment%...
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2011-03-22a.47841.h&s=hiv
Release of documents relating to contaminated blood products: litigation over infection of haemophiliacs with HIV
The Department has published documents relating to litigation over infection of haemophiliacs with HIV through contaminated blood products. In addition, the Department made a commitment to release the attached information in response to an earlier FOI request for Ken Clarke's papers related to decisions on haemophiliacs / response to the haemophilia HIV litigation during the late 1980s.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/FreedomOfInformation/Freedomofinformationpublica...
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?s=hiv+segment%3A21166767
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2011-01-10a.1229.0&s=hiv#g1234.0
Also refer later date http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wms/?id=2010-12-21a.166WS.3&s=hiv#g166WS.4