Lack of facilities and staff to give proper care due to cutbacks

CUTBACKS left hospitals without the staff and facilities vital to give proper care to people with haemophilia and their families, the Lindsay Report found.

In the early years of the contaminated blood crisis, the number of specialist and support doctors available to treat haemophiliacs infected with HIV and hepatitis C was “far less” than in hospitals of comparative size in Britain.

The physical environment in the two main treatment centres, the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre in St James’ Hospital and the National Children’s Hospital (now called the National Centre of Inherited Coagulation Disorders), was “far from ideal”.