North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has called on the Welsh Government to take action to ensure Welsh infected blood victims are treated in the same way financially as their counterparts in the rest of the UK.
Currently Welsh infected blood victims continue to be financially worse off than their equals in other parts of the United Kingdom and Mr Isherwood has written to Julie Morgan MS, Deputy Welsh Health Minister, calling for this discrepancy to be addressed.
Mr Isherwood, who is a member of the Cross Party Group on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood in the Welsh Parliament, said:
“Haemophilia Wales wrote to the Deputy Welsh Health Minister and the Welsh Government at the beginning of this month calling for fairness for these victims and my correspondence is in response to the request by their Chair to contact Welsh Government in support of this.
“Next month, on 15th October, it will be two years since Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry, asked the four nations to take decisive action to level up Infected Blood support across the UK. Yet, still victims in Wales are missing out.”
Mr Isherwood, who in 2017 backed calls for a full public inquiry into the infected blood tragedy of the 1970s and 1980s, when a proportion of blood products supplied to patients by the NHS was contaminated with HIV or hepatitis C, added:
“Infected blood has had – and continues to have – a devastating impact on the lives of thousands of people with haemophilia and their families. Those infected live with the health effects of viruses, with more deaths each year.
“Victims in Northern Ireland had previously received less than those in England, Scotland and Wales, but last month NI Health Minister, Robin Swann, confirmed that annual payments would now range from £18,745 to just under £45,000, bringing them in line with payments made in England, which were significantly increased in April 2019.
“This leaves Wales lagging behind. It is therefore vital that the Welsh Government acts now to ensure that parity of support is achieved until the Infected Blood Inquiry makes recommendations on support in 2022.”
ENDS