AT a large meeting in Dublin recently, members of Positive Action voted to reject the Government appointed tribunal as a "flawed and unfair" system of compensation. The tribunal has been in operation since December, and is seeking to deal with claims from people infected as a result of receiving contaminated blood products. So far two women, who are gravely ill, have received sums from it, of £50,000 and a slightly lower sum respectively.
The number of applications received by the Tribunal is only 72, however. More than 400 members of Positive Action have, on the other hand, lodged individual writs with the High Court against the Minister for Health, the Blood Transfusion Service Board, the National Drugs Advisory Board, Ireland, and the Attorney General.
They have decided to take this alternative route to seek compensation because, says Jane O'Brien: "The tribunal is ad hoc, not statutory, so it could be disbanded at any time. It does not offer a guarantee for the future of these women: provisional awards will not be given as a matter of right, but only at the discretion of the tribunal. A woman infected with the antibodies who is compensated both for the infection which she has already suffered and the risk of some future injuries cannot be said to have received justice if she goes on to develop cancer of the liver."
She is also concerned about the fact that the tribunal does not allow, as a matter of right, a woman to come forward, with her doctor, to give oral evidence of "the horror" of what she has been through. "The tribunal has been described to us as a benevolent institution, but these women are not looking for charity, they are looking for their rights. A Government commissioned report has shown that there were serious deficiencies in the way the Anti D was produced. Plasma was used from a donor who had jaundice."
While the most widely known victims of the scandal are the women who received contaminated Anti D, there are more than 500 other people who have been infected with Hepatitis C through contaminated blood transfusions.
Paula Kealy concludes: "The most hurtful thing about all of this is that no one has ever said they were sorry. Hepatitis C is like a time bomb inside you. We are living with that reality every single day. This is not a problem that can be solved with money alone. No money is going to compensate us for what has happened to our livers. We want to see justice done. Not heads on plates, but an acknowledgment of what was done and an apology. Not this attitude of `pay them the money and we'll file them away'."