Infected blood costs set to soar

The cost of providing medical services to people infected by contaminated blood products is set to significantly increase in the coming years, officials of the Department of Health and Children have warned.

The alert is included in internal briefing documents drawn up for Minister for Health Mary Harney.

Officials said the cost of providing free GP, drugs and other services to patients who have hepatitis C as a result of receiving contaminated blood products is in the region of €15 million per year. "The average cost per eligible person is €10,000 but will increase as the cohort ages, particularly in respect of home support services and home nursing," states the documentation.

Ms Harney told the Dáil at the end of June that compensating those who have hepatitis C and HIV as a result of having received contaminated blood and blood products had cost the State more than €660 million to date, including legal and tribunal fees.

Awards had been made to about 2,200 people, she said.

The briefing documents provided for Ms Harney further reveal that more than €71 million has been paid by the State in legal fees for compensation claims.

The documentation adds that, of the 2,000-plus claimants for compensation over the past decade, some 1,000 were women who had contracted hepatitis C through contaminated Anti-D blood products. Around 700 claimants were transfusion recipients, renal patients or people with haemophilia. The remainder were "secondary claimants" or dependants of persons affected directly who were entitled to seek compensation for loss of consortium, loss of society and for carers' expenses.

In 2004, the average amount paid out in legal costs by the State in relation to a compensation claim was in excess of €36,000 .

Ms Harney was told the cost of compensation, including reparation fund and legal fees, per person for general damages claims was at least €225,000.

The cost of special damages claims for eligible persons could add an indeterminate amount to these figures, officials warned. They also stated any person who established their own right to compensation also potentially entitled their spouse or dependants to compensation.

Legislation introduced early in the summer sought to close off an interpretation of the 2002 Compensation Tribunal Act which allowed for a spouse or partner who had formed a relationship with a person who had been previously diagnosed with hepatitis C or HIV to be given an award for loss of consortium.

The Irish Haemophilia Society, the Irish Kidney Association, Positive Action and Transfusion Positive, which represent people infected with hepatitis C and HIV through contaminated blood products, strongly criticised the move as being "grossly insensitive" and a "retrograde proposal".

The Department of Health briefing document maintains that the State's position was that the relationships concerned commenced in the full knowledge of the hepatitis C diagnosis.