HC Deb 20 March 1990 vol 169 cc557-8W
63. Mr. Meale

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on compensation for patients who are not haemophiliacs who have been affected by HIV through National Health Service treatment.

90. Mr. McLeish

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on compensation for patients who are not haemophiliacs who have been affected by HIV through National Health Service treatment.

95. Mr. Martlew

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on compensation for patients who are not haemophiliacs who have been affected by HIV through National Health Service treatment.

114. Mr. Hunter

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a further statement on his policy regarding non-haemophiliac National Health Service patients who acquired the AIDS virus through routine blood transfusions during surgery.

128. Mrs. Mahon

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on compensation for patients who are not haemophiliacs who have been affected by HIV through National Health Service treatment.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The basis for seeking compensation for injuries alleged to have been suffered through medical treatment is through litigation in the courts. There has never been in this country under successive Governments a general scheme of no-fault compensation for such cases.

The ex-gratia payments for haemophiliacs with HIV recognise the exceptional combination of circumstances of those persons. There are no plans to extend those arrangements to others infected with HIV.