On 9th January, we facilitated a webinar alongside the Haemophilia Society and the UK Thalassaemia Society, hosting the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA). We were joined by Sir Robert Francis KC (Interim Chair), David Foley (Interim Chief Executive), three of IBCA’s interim executive directors (Rachel Forster, Interim Director of Communications; John Kelly, Interim Director of Data; and Sindy Skeldon OBE, Interim Director of Operations) and two non-executive directors (Helen Parker and Sir Rob Behrens CBE).
We hoped the session would provide an opportunity for the community impacted by the infected blood scandal to engage with IBCA and ask questions about the new compensation system. The meeting was held as a webinar to enable as many people as possible to attend and ask questions, and – as participants were not visible – this allows for the session to be made available online.
Sir Robert Francis provided an initial update on the development on the compensation scheme, IBCA’s representatives responded to questions that been submitted by the community beforehand, and then answered some questions from the session’s Q&A function.
Between the charities hosting this webinar, we received approximately 50 questions in advance of the webinar and more than 300 further questions were submitted during the session.
Questions related to a wide range of topics including evidence requirements, disparities in compensation tariff’s, infection dates, IBCA claims management, eligibility criteria, and engagement with the Cabinet Office.
Managing the volume of questions during the webinar was a clear challenge and something we will learn from for any future webinars. HCT’s helpline team are now compiling an FAQ to ensure we have responded to some of the key issues raised this week. This will be sent out via our infected blood compensation bulletin. IBCA have also taken away a full list of questions and will also be picking these up through their newsletter.
The full webinar was recorded and will be published online soon (we hope this week) and we will also share the link to video through our infected blood compensation bulletin. If you’re not already subscribed, you can sign up here.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact our helpline (Phone: 020 7089 6221, Email: Helpline@hepctrust.org.uk) or IBCA directly (Phone: 0141 726 2397, Email: ibcaenquiries@ibca.org.uk).