Inquiry: ‘Significant failings’ saw thousands infected by contaminated blood

The report on the scandal lays bare “decades of gross and culpable failures”, according to a law firm which represented hundreds of Scots affected by contaminated blood.

Thompsons Solicitors, which represented 300 individuals and two charities in the infected blood inquiry, said the “hard-hitting” report set out a number of Scotlandspecific failures that led to “so much suffering and death”.

The firm said these included failures in Scottish blood transfusion services in the 1980s and numerous “missed opportunities” to remedy the injustices brought about by the scandal.

The infected blood scandal saw thousands of patients becoming infected with HIV and hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, with around 2,400 people dying.

It is estimated that around 3,000 people in Scotland were given contaminated blood, whether through NHS transfusions or as part of haemophilia treatment, with hundreds subsequently dying.

Lynn Carey, associate at Thompsons, said: “The report is hard-hitting and in many ways difficult to read.

“Sir Brian Langstaff has laid bare the decades of gross and culpable failures that caused so much pain, suffering and death.”

The report found what Ms Carey described as “significant failings” in Scotland, including poor facilities and inadequate staffing at regional transfusion centres, a failure to introduce testing and what she called “culpable” failures at the Protein Fractionation Centre (PFC) in Edinburgh, set up in the 1970s to produce blood products for use in Scotland and the north of England, but never used for this purpose.

The report found that this contributed to a failure to supply enough Factor VIII plasma from UK donors to meet foreseeable demand, leading to a need to import from abroad.

The report was also critical of decisions at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow that saw children suffering from haemophilia receive plasma products sourced from paid donors in the US, despite these known to be high risk – 21 became infected with HIV at the hospital.

The report attributed this to decisions taken by the-then centre director Dr Michael Willoughby, saying: “It makes little sense for Dr Willoughby to have committed Yorkhill to the purchase of commercial concentrates when throughout the period of interest Scotland was effectively selfsufficient in NHS factor concentrates.”