Penrose Inquiry: report on NHS patients given contaminated blood due

The report into contaminated NHS blood products is a "total whitewash", according to a man from the Scottish Borders who contracted HIV.

Robert Mackie, who lives near Peebles, was one thousands of people accidentally infected with serious diseases during the 1970s and 1980s.

The Penrose Inquiry, which took six years to complete, says people in Scotland should tested for Hepatitis C if they received blood transfusions before 1991.

But that's its only recommendation.

And though it found patients weren't adequately informed of the risks, it says few things could have been done differently.

In the 1970s and 80s hundreds of people in Scotland were given contaminated blood by the NHS - some were infected with HIV, and many have since died.

The Penrose Inquiry was set up to examine how this happened, and what lessons can be learned to prevent it from happening again.

It's findings will be published today.

The charity Haemophilia Scotland has estimated the affect the contaminated blood is likely to have had:

The report has examined how the NHS collected, treated and supplied blood and investigated what patients were told, how they were monitored and why they became infected.

Some of the infected blood came from paid donors in the US, including drug addicts, STV has reported.

In the UK, the NHS used blood from various sources, including prisoners in Scotland’s jails, where the rates of infection were high.

The chair of the inquiry, Lord Penrose, is unable to attend the launch in Edinburgh as he is said to be seriously ill in hospital.