P-05-831 End the unfairness and discrimination in the financial support for victims of the contaminated blood scandals who were infected in Wales

This petition was submitted by the Contaminated Whole Blood UK Group, having collected 159 signatures.

Text of Petition

This petition calls on the Welsh Assembly to end the unfairness and discrimination in financial support for all victims of the infected blood scandal for those infected in Wales, by changing the scheme to at least mirror the provisions for those infected in England. 

Many categories of victim infected in Wales are potentially worse off under the scheme by £20,000 or more. Thousands of people were infected as result of receiving infected blood or infected blood products given to them by the NHS until at least September 1991. Over two thousand people have already died. 

Following devolving of powers, the responsibility for support of victims and their families, for those infected in Wales, sits under the Welsh Assembly. The schemes for support are operated by the Welsh Infected Blood Support service (WIBSS) which is administered by Velindre NHS Trust and NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) who are ultimately accountable to the Welsh Assembly. 

For those infected in England, the comparable scheme is run by EIBSS, ultimately accountable to parliament in London. Even though the victims were all infected by the NHS pre – devolution, the EIBSS and WIBSS have vastly different provisions in financial support. The determining factor as to which scheme you fall under is where the victim was infected not where they live. There are two schemes that those under the WIBSS cannot access. They are called the 'Special Category Mechanism' and 'The discretionary top up scheme'. The net effect of all this is that many categories victim infected in Wales are potentially worse of under the scheme by £20,000, more if they have children, irrespective where of where they live. Two people living in say Cardiff, both infected by the NHS, both with the same impact might receive £20,000 difference in support simply because one of the two had the 'good fortune' to be infected in England. 

We call on the Welsh Assembly to intervene end this injustice now.

Additional Information

Who are we: we are an self organised peer support group that has victims of the infected blood scandal right across the uk https://www.facebook.com/groups/ContaminatedWholeBloodUK/  Where can details of the comparative schemes for those infected in England and those infected in Wales be found: For Wales infected people it is here https://wibss.wales.nhs.uk/  For those infected in England the comparable scheme is found here https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/england-infected-blood-support-scheme

What has happened so far:

A number of attempts from various organisations have tried to raise the issue through the inquiry being led by Sir Brian Langstaff and by making the press aware such as this piece which is focussed on the differentials between Welsh and Scottish schemes https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-43898899

Status

This petition was considered completed by the Petitions Committee at its meeting on 16/03/2021.

The petition was closed as part of a review of all petitions currently under consideration at the Petitions Committee's final meeting of the Fifth Senedd, in light of the upcoming election and the consideration given to this issue to date.

Full details of the consideration of this petition by the Committee and related documents can be seen on the Meetings tab above.

It was first considered by the Petitions Committee on 25/09/2018.

Senedd Constituency and Region

·         Clwyd West

·         North Wales

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