Sunak: infected blood scandal is a day of shame for British state as investigation finds ‘chilling’ cover-up
- ‘This is a day of shame for the British state,’ Sunak told parliament. ‘I want to make a wholehearted and unequivocal apology for this terrible injustice’
- More than 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis C in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s after receiving contaminated blood products
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday that the findings of a report into the infected blood scandal was a day of shame for the British state involving ministers, government officials and people working in the health service.
The scandal led to 3,000 deaths and thousands more contracting hepatitis or HIV, a public inquiry found on Monday.
“I want to make a wholehearted and unequivocal apology for this terrible injustice,” Sunak said, promising to pay “whatever it costs” to compensate those affected and the families of victims who died.
The inquiry into Britain’s decades-long contaminated blood scandal slammed the UK state and found evidence of a “chilling” cover-up, a watershed moment for the country after what is widely seen as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the National Health Service.
Brian Langstaff, chairman of the Infected Blood Inquiry, described the scandal as a “calamity” that should have been avoided and involved “systemic, collective and individual failures to deal ethically, appropriately, and quickly, with the risk of infections being transmitted in blood”.