Infected Blood Inquiry: Who is criticised in new report?

Published

11 months ago

May 20, 2024

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An inquiry into the infected blood scandal has pointed the finger at several people and organisations after more than 30,000 patients were “knowingly” infected with HIV or Hepatitis C.

Inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff said the “disaster was not an accident” and there was a “catalogue of failures” and a “pervasive” cover-up by the NHS and successive governments.

More than 30,000 Britons were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

About 3,000 people died as a result, while many more still live under the shadow of health problems, debilitating treatments and stigma.

Follow live: Updates on infected blood report

Speaking after the report was published on Monday following the seven-year inquiry, Sir Brian said: “The damage caused was compounded by the reaction of successive governments, the NHS and the medical profession.

“Successive governments refused to admit responsibility to save face and expense.

“Today’s report also found that the response to the infections made things worse, including repeated failures by governments and the NHS to acknowledge the victims should not have been infected in the first place.”

In the report, he named specific people and institutions in his criticism.

They included:

Lord Clarke

Kenneth Clarke, now a lord, was heavily criticised by Sir Brian.

He was a health minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government from 1982 to 1985, then health secretary from 1988 to 1990.

Lord Clarke was accused of being “somewhat blasé” when he gave evidence to the inquiry about the collection of blood from prisoners as late as 1983.

His manner was described as “argumentative”, “unfairly dismissive” and “disparaging” towards those who have suffered, with Sir Brian saying he played “some part” in that suffering.

The report said it was “regrettable that he could not moderate his natural combative style in expressing views”.

Sky News has approached Lord Clarke for comment.

The Thatcher government

Margaret Thatcher, as well as subsequent governments and health secretaries, continually said infections were “inadvertent” and patients were given “the best treatment available on the then current medical advice”.

The inquiry report concluded that was not true and said the factual basis for the claim was unclear.

“In short, adopting the line amounted to blindness,” the report said.

“Adopting it without realising it needed to have a proper evidential base, and they did not know what it was, was unacceptable.

“The line, which was wrong from the very outset, then became entrenched for around 20 years: a dogma became a mantra.

“It was enshrined. It was never questioned.”

Sir Brian added that the Thatcher government “did not respond appropriately, urgently and proactively” to the risks of Hepatitis C and HIV transmissions through blood.

He said the government knew there was a much higher incidence of Hepatitis in prisoners, yet “no action” was taken to stop blood donations from them, which “increased the risk of transmission”.

The failure lied “principally at the door” of the health departments in Westminster and Scotland, he said.

He said the Thatcher government signed up to recommendations in 1983 from the Council of Europe to inform clinicians and patients about the risks of treatment – yet failed to follow those recommendations.

Sir Brian described the failure to provide any guidance to doctors about the risk of transmission of AIDS as “inexcusable”.

On compensation, he also said the Thatcher government “plainly formed the view, at an early stage, that nothing had been done wrong, and that no financial assistance would be provided to people with bleeding disorders who had been infected with HIV”.

He added: “It did so without any proper investigation either into what had caused the infections or into the appalling plight of those infected.”

Treloar School

Haemophiliac children were sent to the Hampshire school with an on-site NHS clinic so they could live as near a normal childhood as possible.

Instead, 75 boys died of AIDs and Hepatitis – and 58 were infected but survived – as they were included in secret trials to test a blood product called Factor 8, which was made with blood farmed from prisoners, sex workers and drug addicts in America.

The report said there “is no doubt” the risks of virus transmission were well known to doctors at Treloar School, yet doctors “played down the risks”.

Some pupils and parents were “never informed” by the school the boys had tested positive for HIV, which Sir Brian said “was unconscionable”.

Treloar School was a “microcosm” of much of “what went wrong in the way haemophilia clinicians treated their patients across the UK,” he added.

The school said in a statement: “We are devastated that some of our former pupils were so tragically affected and hope that the findings provide some solace for them and their families.”

It added that its management was “absolutely committed to exploring” calls for a public memorial to those affected, and added: “We’ll now be taking the time to reflect on the report’s wider recommendations.”

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

The hospital was the main site in Liverpool for children with bleeding disorders from the late 1970s onwards.

Doctors used Factor 8 concentrate containing contaminated blood to treat them, even after other haemophilia centres stopped using them on children, Sir Brian found.

Alder Hey’s director from the mid-1970s, Dr John Martin, “did not regard the risk of Hepatitis as a reason to alter any treatment regime”, the report added.

“He exposed them to wholly unnecessary risks,” it said.

Sky News has approached Alder Hey for comment.

Professor Arthur Bloom

Professor Bloom, who died in 1992, was one of the country’s leading haemophiliac specialists during the period and treated some of those who were affected.

Sir Brian Langstaff said he “must bear some of the responsibility for the UK’s slowness in responding to the risks of AIDs to people with haemophilia”.

Prof Bloom said at the time he was unaware of any proof linking infections to the blood products and said there was no need to change patients’ treatment, Sir Brian said.

He added: “Disastrously the Department of Health and Social Security was over-influenced by his advice, in particular his advice to continue importing commercial factor concentrates.”

The NHS

Sir Brian said the response of the NHS and the government showed there was not a major plot to cover up failures “in an orchestrated conspiracy to mislead”.

“But in a way that was more subtle, more pervasive and more chilling in its implications,” he said.

“To save face and to save expense, there has been a hiding of much of the truth.”

He also found patients were knowingly exposed to unacceptable risks of infection, with transfusions frequently given when not clinically needed.

The report also said there was no contact tracing exercise carried out when Hepatitis C screenings were introduced.

Sir Brian also said the NHS and governments repeatedly failed to acknowledge people should not have been infected, despite the scandal being known about.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday offered a “wholehearted and unequivocal” apology to victims and said it was a “day of shame for the British state”.

He said the findings of the inquiry should “shake our nation to its core” and promised to pay “comprehensive compensation to those infected and those affected.”

The NHS said in a statement on its website: “Since September 1991, all blood donated in the UK is screened using very rigorous safety standards and testing to protect both donors and patients.

“Since screening was introduced, the risk of getting an infection from a blood transfusion or blood products is very low.”

UK

Nazi flags, patient ‘sexually assaulted’, ‘dog poo left at whistleblower’s home’: Sky News investigates UK’s ‘worst ambulance service’

Published

2 hours ago

April 28, 2025

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Nazi flags, patient 'sexually assaulted', 'dog poo left at whistleblower's home': Sky News investigates UK's 'worst ambulance service'

A grandmother who claims she was sexually assaulted by a private paramedic on the way to hospital has told Sky News she has been failed by the ambulance service.

Warning: This article contains references to sexual abuse and suicide

It comes as a staff survey of the same service – the South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) – heard damning claims of a culture of discrimination and bullying; with allegations of Nazi flags on team video calls and a “boy’s club” culture where whistleblowers are punished. 

It’s been more than a year since a Sky News investigation first heard of a culture of rampant sexual harassment and abuse in ambulance services.

These issues have existed for decades right across the country.

But now the GMB union, which represents ambulance workers, is calling on the chief executive of SECAmb, Simon Weldon, to resign.

It’s after a survey of workers heard high instances of inappropriate behaviour and bullying; with a huge fear of speaking out.

It’s led the GMB to call for an independent investigation, with one representative branding the ambulance trust “the worst in the country”.

The trust told us it is committed to working with unions for positive change.

‘I just lay there, terrified’

Juliette, 65, has spent four years trying to get her local ambulance trust to listen. In 2021, she accused a private paramedic working with SECAmb of sexually assaulting her.

Hit by a car while cycling through Surrey, she remembers lying on the stretcher in agony, afraid to move in case she was paralysed. Two paramedics carried out assessments for around 90 minutes before driving her to hospital.

But as soon as she was alone in the back with just one of them, she claims the male paramedic suddenly told her he wanted to “check her hips”.

“There was no asking, no consent,” she says. And instead of touching her hips, she claims he sexually assaulted her.

“With his left hand, he opened my shorts up – and put his right hand into my cycling shorts.

“Between my legs.”

She doesn’t want to go into the details, but she says she temporarily froze, powerless and terrified of what he might do. All the while he stared down into her eyes and said nothing.

“I felt so uncomfortable. Shamed, frightened, shocked. I didn’t want it to continue.”

She said her brain eventually “snapped into place” and she moved her legs. She claims he then removed his hand, and sat behind her head in silence for the rest of the journey.

“I just lay there – terrified,” she whispers. 

She reported it to the police the following day, but with no CCTV in the ambulance, it was her word against his. With no hope of a successful prosecution, the Met Police dropped the case.

Then she turned her attention to the ambulance service, hopeful it would act.

We’ve seen correspondence between Juliette’s lawyers and SECAmb, which promised to respond to the formal complaint within 25 days. That was repeatedly delayed for several months.

“It was about seven months after the accident. They still hadn’t acknowledged anything to do with the sexual assault,” she recalls.

“They hadn’t answered any questions.” 

Eventually, they effectively said the assault hadn’t happened; claiming that Juliette herself had started to remove her cycling shorts, and that “consent was given” for an examination after she complained of a pain in her leg.

She unequivocally denies every detail of this account.

She says it left her feeling “insulted, betrayed and humiliated”.

Why – she asks – would somebody think she had “wasted all this time”.

“It’s too late for me,” she adds, but she is making a stand to help others avoid the same trauma.

Culture of discrimination, harassment and bullying

The GMB represents a large number of the 4,000 SECAmb staff, and recently carried out a survey of their members about their experiences of working life.

From the nearly 900 responses, the union claims they identified a culture of discrimination towards women staff members with sexual harassment, bullying, and a general “boys’ club” culture.

Of those surveyed, 25.6% had experienced bullying and 26% had witnessed inappropriate conduct. Racism was witnessed by 16% and sexual harassment by 17.2%.

What’s more, 80% didn’t feel confident the trust would support them if they flagged concerning behaviour.

‘He’s always been into Nazi stuff’

Ambulance worker Amelia (not her real name) told Sky News she finally blew the whistle on inappropriate behaviour a few years ago after she joined a video call with colleagues to discuss staffing levels.

One of the managers joined them from home. To Amelia’s shock, he appeared on their office screen with a large red, white and black Nazi swastika flag prominently behind him.

On his desk was a framed photo of Adolf Hitler, next to what she says looked like a young woman at graduation. On the bookshelves sat a red swastika armband and what she was later told was a World War Two grenade.

She was horrified.

“I kept looking around the room thinking, ‘why is no one saying anything?’… When I spoke to people afterwards they said: ‘Oh yeah… he’s always been into Nazi stuff.”

At first, she blew the whistle anonymously, but was told she’d have to name herself and put in a formal grievance for it to be investigated.

A report seen by Sky News found the manager’s “inappropriate behaviour” should have been challenged, but he still works for SECAmb.

Amelia claims she was isolated by her colleagues, frozen out of meetings and uninvited to team events, saying “it killed my career”.

An independent report found there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that she had been deliberately excluded.

At one point the police were involved, then days later, she says, “I had bags of dog faeces on my doorstep. That went on for a few days, I felt like a prisoner in my own home”.

“Whenever I heard sirens, I got palpitations. I was terrified of who would be in that ambulance.”

‘They become the problem’

When people like Amelia speak out “they become the problem”, says Lib Whitfield, a senior GMB organiser.

Lib started working with the trust eight years ago, after an independent report was published, highlighting behaviours similar to those referenced in this article.

The culture is now the “worst it’s ever been”, says Lib, and she believes it’s the “worst in the country”.

“I am receiving calls every single day from members who are suicidal,” she adds.

Lib says the union has now written to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, with three demands.

“Firstly, we need a full independent investigation into the culture of SECAmb that results in actions and not just words,” she says.

“Secondly, we are calling for the resignation of the current chief executive who has overseen this getting worse.

“And thirdly, we are calling for an interim chief executive to be appointed who is external to SECAmb and who can have external reporting to ensure they are not corrupted.”

We took these allegations to the ambulance trust, which wanted to point out that the alleged events happened before Mr Weldon took over as chief executive.

It also said it had issues with the way the anonymous survey was conducted.

A spokesperson said in a statement: “We continue to work hard to make SECAmb a safe organisation for all of our people and are committed to drive real change.

“The historic cases highlighted were thoroughly investigated, including through independent external reviews, and we firmly believe these cases do not reflect the views of the majority of our people on how it feels to work at SECAmb currently.

“We continue to engage openly with the whole trust about the further improvements we want to make and about the changes needed for the ambulance sector as whole.

“We remain absolutely committed to working with our unions to achieve this, although this will only happen with constructive collaboration on all sides.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting did not respond to our request for an interview, but in a statement a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This is an extremely concerning report and we are looking closely at it. Sexual harassment or abuse within the NHS is completely unacceptable and must be dealt with appropriately.”

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.

UK

Liverpool win Premier League title to equal Man Utd’s record

Published

11 hours ago

April 27, 2025

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Liverpool win Premier League title to equal Man Utd's record

Liverpool have won the Premier League title after a 5-1 victory over Tottenham at Anfield.

Arne Slot’s men did it in impressive style, turning over Spurs in a convincing win.

It was a rocky start for the Reds after Dominic Solanke put the north London side ahead.

However, fortunes quickly changed in the first half as Liverpool scored three times without a response.

In the second half, it took until the 63rd minute for Mohamed Salah to make it 4-1 before a fifth followed.

The Reds have won the title in manager Arne Slot’s first season in charge, and move level with fierce rivals Manchester United on 20 league championships.

But it makes them arguably the most successful English club ever as they have won more European Cup or Champions League titles.

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told Sky Sports after the final whistle: “It’s special and it’s something that we don’t take for granted. It’s amazing.

“A lot of emotions before the game, during the whole week, but we got the job done and we (are) truly deserved champions of England. (Liverpool is) the most beautiful club in the world and I think we deserve all of this. Let’s enjoy the next couple of weeks and let it sink in.”

Slot took over last summer from Jurgen Klopp, who guided them to their previous and maiden Premier League title triumph in 2020, when the COVID-19 lockdown saw matches played behind closed doors.

He is the first Dutch manager to win the Premier League and the fifth man to do so in a debut campaign after Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Manuel Pellegrini, and Antonio Conte.

Speaking to Sky Sports he said: “They [the players] did an outstanding job today. The main job was to win. Everyone said we had got it already. But we had to make sure and we got over the line.”

Several players, including Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah, played leading roles in both the 2025 and 2020 campaigns.

Van Dijk and Salah recently signed new contracts extending their careers at the club.

Liverpool will have to wait until the final game of the season – at home to Crystal Palace on 25 May – to be presented with the Premier League trophy.

It will be the first time the club’s fans will have seen their side lift the top-flight title in person since 1990.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.

UK

Protesters throw powder on Tower Bridge during London Marathon

Published

17 hours ago

April 27, 2025

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Protesters throw powder on Tower Bridge during London Marathon

Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.

The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.

A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.

The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.

They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.

A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.

Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.

There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.

More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.

Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.

Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.

“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”

The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.

The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.