NHS knew blood for tranfusions was contaminated with hepatitis

Sunday Herald (Scotland) 23rd January - NHS knew blood for tranfusions was contaminated with hepatitis
"Government refuses public inquiry into unsafe practice
By Liam McDougall, Home Affairs Editor
BLOOD from Scottish prisoners continued to be used in NHS transfusions during the 1980s despite serious concerns that the practice was unsafe.
Confidential minutes from meetings held by directors of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) also show the agency was taking increasing quantities of blood from American troops and that doctors knew in 1981 the blood they were buying in from the US was contaminated with at least two forms of the hepatitis virus.The documents, released under the Freedom of Information Act, are now to be used by lawyers to build up a case for the government to order a judicial inquiry into how thousands of patients in the UK – including hundreds of Scots – contracted HIV and hepatitis from contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s."