ONE cannot imagine the torment and sense of victimisation felt by David Fielding, one of 2,700 survivors from the original 4,670 sufferers of the worst cases of death by mismanagement in NHS history, reported in the story “Victim ‘gutted’ as MPs dismiss bad blood vote”, The Bolton News, October 18.

I listened to the debate in the House of Commons and was appalled by the history of the victims described by those MPs supporting the claim.

What also shocked me was that during the debate the actual compensation figure was called into question and dismissed. Was the figure out by a magnitude of order or was it 30 per cent of that quoted in the Archer report?

One billion pounds is a serious amount of money none the less. It works out to about £370,370 per sufferer.

To put that in to context, in 2007 an RAF typist was awarded £484,000 a for repetitive strain injury to her thumb. She claimed she became depressed.

I ask readers of The Bolton News to try and imagine what the victims, through no fault of their own, have suffered, from the stigma and prejudice, the depression and hopelessness caused, for the best part of 30 years, by successive governments, compounded by the denial and travesty of an ineffective NHS.

It was known back then that imported blood products from the US were taken from the incarcerated and homeless, from drug addicts and the generally disaffected. But, in true British fashion, no thorough checks were made.

Then, when it was discovered that haemophiliacs, accident victims, in fact anyone who required a blood transfusion, could become positive for HIV, hepatitis or a myriad of other viral diseases, the NHS stuck its head in the sand and denied there was a problem.

And, in so doing, compounded the problem because those infections were passed on to unsuspecting loved ones by the unknowing victims themselves.

If that is not bad enough, with the victims in the galleries to hear the debate, our caring MPs voted 285 to 44 against awarding any compensation.

Our MPs, Qureshi, Hilling and Crausby, were absent and did not vote.

In other words, their vote went along with the party line.

Does it make you sick? Not as sick as those poor victims that now are to suffer another unknown amount of years without hope, justice or closure to this most atrocious and inexcusable of events.

Ainslie Casson Church Walks Westhoughton