Thousands of people infected with hepatitis C as a result of NHS treatment will receive compensation worth up to £45,000, the health secretary, John Reid, said today.
Anyone infected with the virus as a result of receiving contaminated blood or blood products from the health service prior to September 1991, and who was still alive on August 29 last year, will be eligible for compensation, he said.
Those who meet the criteria will initially receive £20,000 from the Department of Health (DoH). They will be paid a further £25,000 if they develop cirrhosis or liver cancer, or receive a liver transplant - signs of the advanced stages of the illness.
The move should end one of the NHS's longest compensation battles by accepting in principle that approximately 2,800 people who are suffering hepatitis C as a result of their treatment should get ex-gratia payments.
It follows the package of financial aid announced in Scotland last July by executive minister Malcolm Chisholm which will pay about 320 patients an initial lump-sum of £20,000, plus £25,000 if their illness advances to a more serious stage.
Mr Reid said: "I felt it was important that English hepatitis C patients should receive these payments on compassionate grounds. It's clear that providing assistance is the right thing to do.
"I hope that they will help alleviate some of the problems people who have been affected in this way are experiencing."
People infected by a blood transfusion from someone who received contaminated blood, patients also infected with HIV, and those who have cleared the virus from their bodies after treatment will also be covered by the scheme.
The DoH said an advertising campaign will be launched to raise awareness of eligibility for compensation.
The payments will be administered by a new body set up by the department called the Skipton Fund. It is hoped that the scheme will start in April.
Testing of blood used by the NHS for hepatitis C began in 1991. Around 5,000 people with haemophilia were infected with hepatitis in the 1970s and 80s in the UK before blood was screened.
Those affected by the disease include patients given blood after an accident or during surgery, and regular recipients such as haemophiliacs.
