Highland infected blood scandal victim says delays in compensation scheme are destroying lives

At his home in the Black Isle, Bruce Norval reflects on the past year since a scathing report into the UK infected blood scandal found the NHS and government to be culpable.

After decades of relentless campaigning to expose the truth, Mr Norval (60) had finally been proved right after more than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis B or C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

In his own case, he was given tainted blood products after being diagnosed with haemophilia - a disorder where the blood does not clot properly - at the age of three, and unknowingly used as a human guinea pig for research.

But more than 12 months on after public inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff published his damning findings, Mr Norval’s initial sense of justification has evaporated as he and thousands of other victims have yet to receive a penny from the compensation scheme which was announced by the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Campaigner still waiting for proof infected blood compensation payouts will be life changing

Just 460 claims have been settled while of 2043 people who have been asked to start a claim, 1674 have begun the process.

Thousands more are still waiting to start the process.

Mr Norval says those affected by the scandal and their families have not being listened to, or involved properly in designing the scheme.

“The delays are destroying people mentally,” Mr Norval says .

“I've watched my friends get worse over the last 12 months and that moment - not of elation - but of confirmation, of reaffirmation that we were right that came the day Sir Brian announced his report and in reading it and feeling vindicated after four decades in the haemophilia community of campaigning for justice, disappeared the day Rishi Sunak 24 hours later started to come down on what the numbers were actually going to be and how they were going to run it.

“It became clear that they weren't really sorry, that they were looking for the cheapest way out, that they were going to ignore any costs in relation to the destruction of our childhood, that they were only going to value us as adults, that they were going to try and steal years, make use of the fact that our notes had been edited, the fact that this was all done behind closed doors with the excuse that it had to be done rapidly.”

He is not alone in his disquiet.

Sir Brian also says there are “obvious injustices” in the way the compensation scheme has been devised.

Earlier this month, he published a hard-hitting additional 200-page report after taking the unprecedented step of holding two days of extra hearings in May.

He said a significant cause of the blood scandal was the belief that authorities knew best and people did not need to be consulted - and this had happened again in the design of the compensation scheme.

His latest report concluded victims had been harmed further by the way they had been treated over the past 12 months.

Mr Norval - who describes Sir Brian as an exemplar of a judge - underlines the importance of his actions, saying it is the first time under a 2005 Act that an inquiry judge has refused to close the inquiry until the compensation scheme is set up properly within his instruction.

“I think it represents a lack of trust the judge has in the government’s ability to follow through on the public inquiry and fully enact the recommendations, or make a reasonable approximation in enabling the recommendations,” says Mr Norval who believes the issues could have been addressed by speaking to the victims.

Mr Norval, who has started his claim, has been consigned to a lifetime of chronic ill health, depression, social isolation, unemployment, financial hardship, broken family relationships - and a relentless search for answers in the face of not being believed.

He has developed a form of the bone-weakening condition, osteoporosis, and suffered fractures to his spine.

It has also had a devastating impact and wreaked havoc on his wife, Christine, and their son and daughter plus other family members.

Mr Norval maintains the compensation scheme ignores the damage which has been done along the way.

He recalls the stigma and abuse he faced as he wrongly became associated with the HIV epidemic due to ignorance.

“I was forced to move away from the Highlands because of the threats of violence and assault,” he recalls.

“I had a broken bottle thrust in my face.

“Someone threatened to firebomb my father’s shop if I didn’t leave town.

“All these things happened to me in Inverness in the 1980s.”

He said other haemophiliacs had also had similar experiences.

“We were all treated as if we posed a risk to the entire population and we all faced threats and abuse,” he says.

“That kind of discrimination has not gone away. It has gone into polite avoidance. That stepping back of three metres. I see it every day of my life.

“I live a very isolating life as do most haemophiliacs I know.”

Although reluctant to talk figures, he believes every haemophiliac who had been used from childhood for research should be awarded at least £2 million.

“We have probably already sacrificed more than that over a lifetime,” he maintains.

“Most of us were chronically sick early on in our lives.

“Some were infected within a few weeks of birth.

“We have been left unsupported for the majority, if not all, of our lives.

“For survivors who have gone through all of that, the only respectful decision would be to accept that those of us who were experimented on should be paid no less than £2 million.”

In his report, Sir Brian sets out recommendations to make the compensation process fairer and faster which the government is now considering.

Mr Norval, meanwhile, asked where he expects to be in another year’s time, replies: “Probably still arguing with government, probably still running news stories. I hope not.

“I would like to think that I could be in my completed house and reading a book. That's where I should be.”

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