The inquiry into contaminated blood products which led to the deaths of at least 2,400 people, and infected thousands more, is something few of those affected thought would ever come, a solicitor representing victims has said.
It is the first UK-wide public inquiry into how blood infected with HIV and hepatitis C was given thousands of NHS patients in the 1970s and 1980s, the impact on patients and their families, and whether it could have been prevented.
Previous inquiries have lacked powers to force witnesses to testify, undermining their ability to establish whether the risks were known about but concealed from patients and previous investigations. The High Court also ruled last year that victims can sue the government for compensation over its failure to provide prompt and timely risk warnings.
Chairman Sir Brian Langstaff has said the probe would examine whether there had been an attempt to cover up the scandal, and has promised a “thorough examination of the evidence”.
He will give his first address at preliminary hearings being held in London this week alongside a commemoration event led by campaigners.
On Tuesday and Wednesday those infected or affected by the scandal, and lawyers working on their behalf, will give opening statements.
Des Collins, of Collins Solicitors, which represents more than 800 victims, their families and eight campaign groups, said the inquiry is critically important.
“For those affected, their families and the campaign groups this is a day few thought that they would ever see – and it is a testament to those who have campaigned so hard to make it a reality,” he said.
“The feeling among our many clients is that they felt that the Government had washed its hands of them, but now those responsible – both in government and at pharmaceutical companies – will be held to account."
He said the start of the probe would begin the long process of understanding how and why they received infected treatment from the NHS, the details of “the extensive cover-up that followed”, and what the Government proposes to do about it.
Across two decades nearly 5,000 people with the clotting disorder haemophilia are known to have been infected after receiving contaminated blood products.
Research in the 1970s identified how to make the clotting agents that people with haemophilia and other conditions lack by pooling and purifying donated human blood plasma.
One major treatment, clotting agent Factor VIII, meant patients could avoid lengthy hospital blood transfusions to prevent minor injuries causing life-threatening bleeds, and was in high demand.
But the UK was slow to develop its own reserves and relied on importing stocks from the US, much of it pooled from paid donors including prisoners, sex workers, drug users and others at high risk of infection. Though Scotland did set up its own supply chain, the rest of the UK was still using imported stocks well into the 1980s when HIV infection was at its peak.
These viruses could be passed on to wives, sexual partners, and even children. Contaminated blood stocks were also used in transfusions in hospital, and as many as 30,000 may have been infected in all.
Heat treatment to remove any viral infection from blood and plasma stocks only became routine by the mid-1980s, but question marks remain about how much was known before this point.
Collins Solicitors said fewer than 250 of the haemophiliacs who were co-infected with both Hepatitis C and HIV remain alive, with most dying before 1997.
The firm said many of those who have survived face a lifetime of medication – having to cope with serious illness and discrimination.
According to the terms of reference, which were published in July, the long-awaited inquiry will consider “whether there have been attempts to conceal details of what happened” through the destruction of documents or withholding of information.
It will also consider whether those attempts were deliberate and if “there has been a lack of openness or candour” in the response of the Government, NHS bodies and other officials to those affected.
Additional reporting by PA
