08-05-2025
‘My dad would have been devastated' – bereaved speak out over infected blood payouts.
A nurse whose father died after being given infected blood has said he would have been 'disgusted' at the way bereaved families have been treated in the wake of the scandal.
Louise Huitson said her father died in 2021 believing his family would receive a payout 'soon'.
Some 106 people have received payouts so far.
Ms Huitson, an A&E nurse, was among hundreds of people affected by the scandal attending special hearings of the Infected Blood Inquiry about the 'timeliness and adequacy of the Government's response to compensation'.
She took her seven-week-old son Jacob Joseph, named after his grandfather, to the hearings.
Jacob, like his grandfather, has haemophilia, an inherited disorder which means the blood does not clot properly.
Joe Huitson was infected with hepatitis C as a teenager while receiving treatment for the condition.
Hepatitis C is a virus passed on through blood and can cause serious damage to the liver.
For Mr Huitson, it led to liver cancer which spread to his spine, also causing him paralysis.
He died in 2021 when he was 54.
Ms Huitson, 38, from Kettering, told the PA news agency: 'Jacob is dad's first grandchild, which is really sad because he was desperate for grandchildren.
'He loved children and all children just loved him, he was just one of those people that children just gravitate to because they're fun and throw them around.
'So it's really sad, because he just would have absolutely adored being a grandfather.
'And Jacob is haemophiliac as well, so dad would have been so supportive.'
She described how Jacob, one of the youngest people with haemophilia in the country, bled for five hours when he had his 'heel prick test' at five days old, and ended up in hospital.
'I wouldn't have panicked so much if dad was here,' Ms Huitson said.
Ms Huitson said her father felt 'lucky' because many of his peers had also been co-infected with HIV.
An acute hepatitis C infection left him using a wheelchair for eight years, but Ms Huitson said he was determined to walk again and did so a number of years later.
Her father, from Oxfordshire, and who worked as a care manager, found out he had liver cancer in 2020.
Ms Huitson said his transition from being a carer to being cared for was particularly difficult for her father, who was going to the gym daily before his cancer diagnosis.
'To suddenly be the guy that had to be cared for just broke him,' she said.
But despite his illness, he was the 'most popular person I've ever known in my life,' she said, describing her father as a 'lovely' man.
Mr Huitson, a father of six, was keenly watching the inquiry proceedings before his death.
Ms Huitson said some of her father's last words were 'just make sure they look after all of you lot'.
She went on: 'There's still no (mention of) payout to the estates, I'm not hearing anything about estates for the dead infected.
'So I think he'd be disgusted, he'd be devastated.
'He was so glad that the inquiry had happened, and he thought it was going well, and he was like 'Everyone's going to get paid (it won't be) too long, I know that I'm going die and but everyone's going be looked after'.'
More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C after they were given contaminated blood and blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s.
More than 3,000 people died as a result and survivors are living with lifelong health implications.
In her October budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves allocated £11.8 billion to compensate victims, administered by the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA).
The IBCA said, as of May 6, 677 people have been asked to start their claim and 106 payments have been made, totalling more than £96 million.
It is expected the 'bulk' of payments for people infected will be paid out by 2027 and the bulk of payments for the affected are expected to be paid by 2029.
Officials from the IBCA gave evidence on Thursday.
Interim chairman Sir Robert Francis told the hearing there is an 'awareness' in the IBCA 'that every day we're not paying someone, the chances of someone dying are there'.
IBCA interim chief executive David Foley added: 'I wish we could get to everybody all at the same time.'
He added: 'We know we have to go faster. We know we have to do more.
'But from a standing start in May, in less than four months, we paid the first people.
'We've now written to 677 people to begin their claims.
'It is not enough, and it will not be enough until every single person's paid compensation, we are trying to go as fast as we can.'
Sir Robert added: 'I'm acutely aware that any time taken to receive and process claims and awards is too long for those who have waited decades for justice, and in far too many cases have died before receiving it.
'We do not expect the community to be satisfied with our work until we have made full award to all those entitled to them.
'We will continue to review our work, all the time, asking ourselves how we can go faster while maintaining accuracy, compassion and fairness.'
Mr Foley said that there is not currently a timescale to open the scheme to 'deceased infected' but added: 'There a mission to open all of those parts of the scheme as quickly as possible.'
