THE Government is to give an extra #19m to help the 1200 haemophiliacs
accidently infected with the Aids virus through NHS blood treatment.
The additional cash follows an impassioned personal plea by sufferers
to Mrs Thatcher and a campaign by MPs from all parties.
Health Secretary Mr Kenneth Clarke said in a Commons written reply
that it would be given to the MacFarlane Trust, set up in 1987 to help
the plight of the haemophiliacs accidently infected.
It will enable the trust to make individual payments of #20,000 this
year.
Mr Clarke said: ''These payments will go to each person with
haemophilia who is infected with the Aids virus as a result of treatment
with blood products in the UK or to the family of such a person who has
died.''
The people were affected before the NHS started to screen all blood
for the Aids virus.
Labour's Mr Alf Morris (Manchester Wythenshawe), former Minister for
the Disabled and leading campaigner for the haemophiliacs, said the #19m
pay-out would give the 1200 people affected less on average than under
the out-of- court awards, which he said so far have been about #50,000
to #100,000.
Mr Morris said he was concerned that some of the money was coming from
cash already given to the trust. ''The Government is simply robbing
Peter to pay Paul.''
He added: ''The Labour
Party will study this offer very carefully. But it is less than the
out-of-court settlements.''
Mr Morris condemned the way the announcement was made through a
written reply, ''denying MPs the opportunity to quiz the Health
Secretary on the details''.
Mr Clarke said in the written reply that the Government shared the
sense of shock at the unique position of those affected by the Aids
virus as a result of NHS treatment they required in order to survive.
The Government had realised the problem and given the Haemophilia
Society a grant in l987, which enabled the society to set up the special
McFarlane Trust, to distribute payments to individuals and their
families.
Yesterday's extra cash means that the total payments made to the trust
by the Government now totals #29m.
Mr Clarke confirmed that social security payments would be unaffected
by payments from the trust.
However, campaigners yesterday vowed that the announcement of the
extra cash was not the end of their fight for full compensation.
The 600 victims taking their cases to court will continue their
battle.
Yesterday, one of them, Aids sufferer Mr Danny Morgan, from south
London, made an emotional plea to Mrs Thatcher, dubbing the pay-off ''20
pieces of silver.''
''Where is the help in this?'' he told a meeting at Westminster as the
extent of the payments became clear.
The Haemophiliacs Society wanted #100m -- more than #80,000 per
victim.
Mr Morgan, a father of two young children who was infected in 1985,
says his wife had been driven to the edge of nervous breakdown by the
strain of his condition.
''What does this do for me on a day to day basis? I have a mortgage of
#40,000. When I die, it is pleasant to know that #20,000 is covered.
''It would be better if people looked at the actual physical
privations we go through and found ways to help us rather than arguing
about how to divide up 20 pieces of silver.''
Mr Jonathan Cooper, of the Haemophilia Society, said: ''Each of the
1200 victims should get at least #100,000 each so they can have a degree
of control over their own affairs.
Mr David Watters, the society's general secretary, said he was
''disappointed'' by the sum.
SDP leader Dr David Owen later condemned the extra cash as ''massively
lower than people could expect to get in court''.
He called, during the Queen's Speech debate, for a fair statutory
compensation system.
''It would be possible to negotiate a compensatory arrangement that
would obviate the need for any legal case and that all the legal cases
would be withdrawn, but it would require a generous settlement.''
Dr Owen said: ''It would require a settlement at least four times that
which is currently being proposed by the Government.''
He also urged increased action to halt the spread of Aids, with a
programme of routine testing by doctors without requiring a patient's
permission.
He said: ''We are still failing to do what we have done in the past
when faced by an infectious illness like this and that is to conduct
routine blood tests on people for HIV virus and not to have permission
for it.''
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