Donald Dewar feared paying compensation to people infected by contaminated blood would result in an “open cheque book”. Scotland’s inaugural First Minister was worried a huge amount of claimants would result in serious financial issues.
The UK Infected Blood Inquiry was told his concerns appeared in an email sent in September 1999. Around 3,000 people in Scotland contracted Hepatitis C and HIV in the 1970s and 1980s through blood products used to treat conditions like haemophilia.
Those who survived did not get financial support until 2004. An inquiry into the scandal was set up in 2017 to examine what has been dubbed the worst treatment disaster in NHS history.
