The UK government has been urged by the family of a man who passed away after receiving infected blood to pay their compensation right away.
In 1994, Randolph Peter Gordon-Smith, a haemophiliac, discovered he had contracted hepatitis C.
His daughter claimed that before his passing in 2018, the family had been "abandoned" to care for him alone.
According to the chairman of the UK infected blood inquiry, victims' parents and children should be compensated.
A final compensation framework should be in place by the end of the year, according to Sir Brian Langstaff.
Last October, the UK government paid interim compensation payments totaling £100,000 to survivors and widows.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the NHS treated more than 3,000 patients who later passed away from hepatitis C or HIV.
In the years before he discovered he was infected, Justine Gordon-Smith told BBC Scotland, her father's behavior had changed.
She remarked that he had always been a very dynamic man who was also very charming, attractive, and charismatic.
Then, all of a sudden, he started acting erratically, dozing off frequently, and his temper became volatile. ".
She claimed that as a result, he lost his home, his business, his wife, his health, and a sizable inheritance.
She continued, "It was awful.". Then he withdrew and turned into a recluse, cutting off contact with his kids. He felt such shame. ".
Ms. Gordon-Smith is upset that he did not receive adequate information about the implications of his diagnosis for his health, nor was the entire family informed of it.
Regarding the scandal involving contaminated blood, she charged that the UK government had adopted a strategy of "deny, delay, and death.".
She added that the state allegedly treated him with "disregard" as he was perishing.
As his daughters cared for him when he was dying, Ms. Gordon-Smith, who resides in Edinburgh, claims that receiving compensation would show appreciation for "what they did to our family.". .
The government, she continued, "needs to get their checkbook out, do the right thing, and pay [the compensation].". "Not later, but right now, before the investigation's findings. ".
Because the palliative care medications had such a profound effect on our father, we lost him two years before his actual passing.
"Our family has struggled because of the distress this has caused me and all of my sisters. ".
The drugs used in palliative care, she claimed, "tortured him to death.".
"I think it is shameful that they didn't give our father the proper palliative care he needed and left my sisters and I to take care of him for two years, providing 24 hour care.
"That we were forced to deal with suicide attempts and all of that without any assistance from the government. ".
The lives of people like Mr. Gordon-Smith could have been saved at a relatively low cost, a director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) has privately acknowledged.
Prof. Marc Turner admits as much to a colleague in an email obtained by the advocacy group Factor 8 a few weeks after the chair of the infected blood inquiry called for an expansion of the compensation program.
The email stated: "In my opinion, it would have been better to spend a few thousand pounds to reduce transmissions than to spend a few billions compensating people after the fact.
The past will be repeated by those who cannot remember it. ".
The statement made by Prof. Turner is accurate, but according to Factor 8 director Jason Evans, he should make it known to the public and address those who have been impacted.
"That is the kind of news that people who have suffered such severe harm and whose loved ones have died have been waiting a long time to hear. I only wish they had been said in the open.
It also confirms what many of us have believed for a while: this scandal was avoidable and preventable, despite what the government and public authorities have maintained for many years.
"Money was ultimately the deciding factor. Authorities failed to allocate the funds or resources necessary to prevent this from occurring. People died as a result, and there is a cost associated with that. ".
A SNBTS director who was not invited to provide a personal witness statement to the inquiry, according to NHS National Services Scotland, made the remark.
"The impact of transfusion-transmitted infections on patients, as well as their families and friends, cannot be overstated, and we recognize that there have been prior instances where SNBTS could have performed better," a spokesperson said.
We have expressed our regret and sincere apologies for these shortcomings in both our written and oral submissions to the inquiry. ".
When the final report from the infected blood inquiry is released in the fall, they declared that they will carefully consider Sir Brian Langstaff's advice.
A spokesman for the UK government stated: "The government accepts the moral case for compensation, and work is ongoing at a rapid clip in consultation with the devolved administrations to take into consideration the recommendations made in the inquiry's second interim report. ".
Later, a House of Commons debate on the infected blood inquiry is scheduled.
