Contaminated blood victims raise concerns about new advisor on compensation

• Video report by Jonathan Brown

Families who have been waiting decades for compensation after falling victim to the contaminated blood scandal say the government's choice to chair a group advising on compensation could lead to more suffering.

Thousands of patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 80s.

Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery has now been appointed to chair a group of experts offering "technical advice" to the compensation talks, but his links to a pharmaceutical firm and NHS trust implicated in the scandal have been highlighted by campaigners as being potentially problematic.

For decades, Jonathan Colam-French, who lives near Spilsby in Lincolnshire, had no idea he had been infected with hepatitis C.

“I was infected so young that my normal was my normal," he said. "The best years of my life were spent feeling ill."

At the age of 12 he was treated for a bruised finger, but he was in his 30s by the time he was told he - like thousands of others - had been given contaminated blood to do so.

He has since joined the fight for compensation, but says the interests of victims like him still are not being put first.

“I can’t see an end in sight. It feels like they’re going to keep dragging this on," said Mr Colam-French.

"I had 20 years with my liver being damaged on a daily basis. I know that’s going to impact on the amount of time I’ve got available and I don’t want to waste it."

In the 1970s and 80s, blood product 'Factor 8' was sourced from high risk donors in America like prisoners, drug addicts and sex workers to treat patients in the UK.

To date, more than 3,000 people who contracted illnesses have died.

A public inquiry was set up in 2017 - hearing evidence from hundreds of people affected - before its final recommendations to compensate them were made last year.

The appointment of Sir Jonathan has been criticised by campaign groups.

He is also chair of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, whose haemophilia unit was criticised during the public inquiry, and he has links to pharmaceutical firm Bayer which made and supplied infected blood products.

"It’s not ethical, it’s a complete conflict of interest," said Sarah Dorricott from Leeds, whose father, Mike, was infected when he was 15 years old.

"It would be like hiring someone from Fujitsu to advise the government on compensation for the Post Office scandal.

"It’s completely inappropriate."

Mr Dorricott contracted hepatitis C after undergoing routine dental surgery.

It later caused liver cancer which he died from in 2015 before being awarded any compensation.

“My dad was such an avid campaigner and had such a sense of justice he would be furious," said Ms Dorricott.

"I don’t think the government have done this ignorantly, I think they’re playing games with us.

“I’m shaking because I’m that angry," she said.

"Why can’t we be shown some empathy care and attention? It’s insulting."

Hull MP Diana Johnson, who has regularly raised the scandal in parliament, said she understood why questions have been raised about Prof Montgomery.

"There hasn’t been any explanation about what role will entail or person appointed so I think that’s why people have raised concerns in recent days," she said.

In a statement, a Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "Sir Jonathan is an experienced healthcare law scholar who has played a leading role in UK public bioethics.

“Last year he ceased to be a member of the Bayer Bioethics Council, which is an independent advisory body that is distinct from the operational business of Bayer."

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