The Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt has been accused of running for prime minister on “broken promises” after claims that he failed victims of the infected blood scandal and did not fulfil his promise to a dying man.
The infected blood inquiry, which began its hearings in London in May and spent the last fortnight in Leeds, is looking into the scandal, which is estimated to have claimed more than 3,000 lives. Before effective screening was introduced, NHS patients were given transfusions and blood products in the 1970s and 1980s containing HIV and hepatitis C viruses.
On Friday, the inquiry examined the case of Michael Dorricott, a mild haemophiliac who was infected with hepatitis C at the age of 15 during a routine dental procedure when he was given contaminated Factor VIII blood products.
Like many mild haemophiliacs, the inquiry heard, he could have been treated with older medication and did not necessarily need the new Factor VIII drug.
Giving evidence alongside her daughters, Sarah and Eleanor, and Dorricott’s mother, Jennifer, his wife Ann told the inquiry her husband had died in April 2015 at the age of 47 from liver cancer linked to the hepatitis C. The women described how Dorricott’s disease and eventual death had devastated their lives.
They told the inquiry that following his terminal diagnosis, he had met his local MP, Hunt, who was then health secretary, who “made lots of promises” about support and compensation. Dorricott’s family told how the two men had become “really good friends” and were on “first-name terms”.
In an interview following the inquiry, his daughter Sarah said: “My dad really had quite a close relationship with Hunt. He met him on numerous occasions. He had trust in him. We all thought that he [Hunt] would sort this out and that’s what he had promised, but that was over five years ago now and our dad is no longer here.
“He [Hunt] is now running to become prime minister and he is doing that on broken promises. Promises that he made to my father.”
Ann Dorricott told the inquiry how her husband had a meeting with Hunt, the junior health minister, Jane Ellison, and about 20 civil servants about getting a “fair and final settlement”. Ann said this was a week after her husband had been told he had terminal cancer.
She told the inquiry: “When Mike told the room that it was terminal, Mike got very upset, very emotional. Towards the end of the meeting, Jeremy Hunt came to myself and Mike, shook our hands and said to us: ‘Don’t worry about this, we’ll sort it.’ Those were his words.”
The counsel to the inquiry, Jenni Richards, reminded Ann that she had said in her witness statement that Hunt had “guaranteed” to her husband he would “sort this out”. Richards said: “You say in your statement this: ‘Since that meeting he has not fulfilled his promise.’ That is your view and that was Mike’s view?”
Ann told the inquiry: “Yes.”
She explained that Hunt had been their constituency MP when they lived in Farnham in Surrey – but they later moved to Sedbergh in Cumbria.
Ann said her husband had met Hunt on a number of occasions relating to his campaign for compensation for the infected blood victims. She said: “He respected Jeremy Hunt. They called each other by their Christian names. He had a good relationship with him.”
She said the meeting was in about February 2014 and was to discuss “what would be a fair and final settlement for the victims of contaminated blood”.
Dorricott’s family told the inquiry that he was first given Factor VIII in 1982. He found out he had hepatitis in 1996, when he was 28, and later developed liver cancer despite two liver transplants.
His daughter Sarah read from a piece her father, a managing director at United Biscuits, wrote before his death. In it, he described how the “nasty, nasty, disease has completely shattered my life”.
He explained how he had been forced to take early retirement from his well-paid job on medical grounds when he was just 42. He said his early retirement had reduced his income and estimated his lifetime loss of earnings at £2.25m.
Dorricott said: “The financial impact of this scandal is only one part of how this has affected me and my family. The chances are that I will be dead in the next 12 months. Nothing will ever repay this.
“I won’t be there for my wife and two daughters. I won’t get to walk them up the aisle. I won’t be there to see their grandchildren. My wife will be on her own.”
Continuing his statement, Dorricott mentioned meeting Hunt and said only a financial package that made his family secure would provide any mitigation, adding: “It is time that the government sorts this issue out.”
He said: “We have had years of pain and anguish as a result of the actions taken by previous governments. They knew the risks of moving from a relatively safe product (Cryoprecipitate) to the massively riskier Factor VIII.”
In response, a spokesperson for Hunt said that following the meeting with the Dorricott family, the government had increased financial support for victims and launched a public inquiry.
He added: “The Dorricott family are among thousands who have faced tragedy as a result of this appalling injustice. As well as increasing the financial support for victims, Jeremy pushed for this landmark inquiry because those affected have a right to know what went wrong and why.”
The inquiry also heard powerful testimony from Peter Burney, who said he would not live to see the conclusion of the inquiry after being told that he only had a year to live earlier this week.
Burney, 60, from Stockport, who contracted hepatitis after two blood transfusions in 1976, called for victims of the NHS scandal to be fast-tracked for any medical procedures.
“There is a victim dying every 96 hours while the Department for Health stand by and watch. There is one voice less with every passing. I am definitely a victim who will not see the end of this inquiry. I am one of the many who will not see justice.”
