Haemophiliacs’ plea

HAEMOPHILIACS will today urge the Scottish Executive to provide almost £10 million a year compensation to patients infected with hepatitis C through NHS treatment. A report published yesterday by the Haemophilia Society urged Westminster to provide £52.6 million a year over a ten-year period for patients in England and Wales who contracted the potentially fatal virus through blood products or transfusions.

From 1969 to 1985, 95 per cent of haemophiliacs were treated with blood products carrying a high risk of infection with hepatitis C.

An expert group set up to examine the compensation system for Scottish patients will be told to consider the report at its meeting today.