Survivors and bereaved families caught up in the infected blood scandal are being asked to prove their eligibility for compensation all over again, despite a landmark public inquiry already confirming what happened to them. For many, that means hunting down medical records from 30 or 40 years ago, reopening wounds that never fully healed.
Suzanne Morgan knows that pain better than most. Her mother died after receiving a routine blood transfusion during a hospital stay for gallstones. What should have been a straightforward procedure turned into a nightmare. Her mother deteriorated fast, suffered a liver haemorrhage, and was gone the next day.
Now, years later, Suzanne finds herself having to go back through that trauma in paperwork form. ‘I have to keep reliving it,’ she said. Instead of being supported through the compensation process, claimants like her are being asked to jump through bureaucratic hoops that the inquiry’s own recommendations never intended.
The infected blood scandal is widely considered the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS. Tens of thousands of people were given blood products contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C during the 1970s and 1980s. Many were haemophiliacs who had no choice but to rely on those treatments. Others, like Suzanne’s mother, received transfusions during routine procedures with no idea of the risk they were being exposed to. Around 3,000 people died as a direct result, and thousands more were left with life-changing health conditions.
After decades of campaigning, the public inquiry led by Sir Brian Langstaff delivered its final report in 2024, confirming that the contamination was not just a tragic accident but the result of cover-ups and deliberate decisions to hide the truth from patients and families. The report called for a compensation scheme to be set up quickly and fairly.
But the reality of how that scheme is operating has left many claimants frustrated and exhausted. Rather than taking the inquiry’s findings as a foundation for eligibility, the Infected Blood Compensation Authority is in many cases asking individuals to provide their own documentary evidence. For people whose loved ones were treated decades ago, tracking down hospital records, blood product batch numbers, or clinical notes is an enormous task, and in some cases simply impossible.
Records have been lost, hospitals have closed, and some of the medical professionals involved are no longer alive or practising. Families who already spent years fighting to be believed are now being asked to prove themselves all over again through a system that critics say is placing the burden in the wrong place entirely.
Campaigners argue this goes against the spirit of what the inquiry recommended. The whole point of the inquiry was to establish the truth so that victims would not have to keep proving it. Asking people to locate paperwork from 40 years ago, when the government itself was responsible for destroying or withholding evidence, feels deeply unjust to those going through it.
For Suzanne and others like her, each request for more documentation is not just an administrative inconvenience. It is a fresh reminder of loss, a forced return to some of the worst moments of their lives. The emotional toll of repeatedly having to justify your own suffering is something that cannot be captured in a form or a checklist.
The Infected Blood Compensation Authority has said it is working to make the process as straightforward as possible and that it takes the experiences of claimants seriously. But with many people already in poor health, elderly, or dealing with grief that has stretched across decades, the pressure to gather evidence quickly adds another layer of stress to what was always going to be a difficult process.
What those affected want, more than anything, is to feel that the system is finally on their side. After everything they have been through, after years of being dismissed and ignored by the very institutions that harmed them, being asked once again to prove their pain is a bitter pill to swallow.
The infected blood scandal did not happen by accident. It happened because people in positions of power made decisions that prioritised cost and convenience over patient safety, and then worked to keep that truth buried. The least the compensation process can do is treat the people left behind with the dignity and trust they were denied for so long.