Payments announced for patients infected with hepatitis C
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《英国医生杂志》
British patients infected with hepatitis C through blood, blood products, or organ transplants during NHS treatment are to receive payments of up to ￡45 000 ($82 298, �65 417) under a government compensation scheme unveiled last week.
The ex gratia scheme will include patients who have cleared the virus through antiviral treatment (but not those who have cleared it spontaneously), those who caught the virus from someone else who was infected by NHS treatment, and those who are also infected with HIV.
But campaigners for people with haemophilia, who have been pressing for a scheme for years, say the sums on offer are inadequate. They had asked for ￡144 000 per person, on the basis of payments received through a scheme in Canada.
They are also angry that widows and other dependents of patients who died before 29 August 2003, when the government first announced that it would set up a scheme, will receive nothing.
The move, which covers the whole of the United Kingdom, followed a decision by Scottish ministers to set up a scheme there. The department of health in England had long resisted calls for compensation, though a scheme for patients infected with HIV through NHS treatment was established in 1988.
The new scheme will cover anyone infected with hepatitis C through NHS treatment before September 1991, when screening for the virus was introduced in Britain. Those who were infected will receive a lump sun of ￡20 000, with a further ￡25 000 for patients who developed cirrhosis or liver cancer or who had to undergo a liver transplant.
Legislation will be introduced to ensure that those receiving compensation will not lose social security benefits. The scheme, which will start operating from April 2004, will be administered by a new independent body called the Skipton Fund.
John Reid, the health secretary, said: "I believe that these are fair and reasonable payments and I hope that they will help alleviate some of the problems people who have been affected in this way are experiencing."
It will be assumed that people who developed hepatitis C after treatment with factor VIII or factor IX concentrates were infected as a result of that treatment.
In 2001, more than 100 people infected with hepatitis C through blood transfusions won compensation in a high court group action brought under product liability laws. The rules of the new scheme say that any compensation from other sources will be deducted from any award due under the scheme.(BMJ Clare Dyer legal corr)
The ex gratia scheme will include patients who have cleared the virus through antiviral treatment (but not those who have cleared it spontaneously), those who caught the virus from someone else who was infected by NHS treatment, and those who are also infected with HIV.
But campaigners for people with haemophilia, who have been pressing for a scheme for years, say the sums on offer are inadequate. They had asked for ￡144 000 per person, on the basis of payments received through a scheme in Canada.
They are also angry that widows and other dependents of patients who died before 29 August 2003, when the government first announced that it would set up a scheme, will receive nothing.
The move, which covers the whole of the United Kingdom, followed a decision by Scottish ministers to set up a scheme there. The department of health in England had long resisted calls for compensation, though a scheme for patients infected with HIV through NHS treatment was established in 1988.
The new scheme will cover anyone infected with hepatitis C through NHS treatment before September 1991, when screening for the virus was introduced in Britain. Those who were infected will receive a lump sun of ￡20 000, with a further ￡25 000 for patients who developed cirrhosis or liver cancer or who had to undergo a liver transplant.
Legislation will be introduced to ensure that those receiving compensation will not lose social security benefits. The scheme, which will start operating from April 2004, will be administered by a new independent body called the Skipton Fund.
John Reid, the health secretary, said: "I believe that these are fair and reasonable payments and I hope that they will help alleviate some of the problems people who have been affected in this way are experiencing."
It will be assumed that people who developed hepatitis C after treatment with factor VIII or factor IX concentrates were infected as a result of that treatment.
In 2001, more than 100 people infected with hepatitis C through blood transfusions won compensation in a high court group action brought under product liability laws. The rules of the new scheme say that any compensation from other sources will be deducted from any award due under the scheme.(BMJ Clare Dyer legal corr)