A former senior doctor from Newcastle 's blood transfusion centre said in 1983 there were "embarrassingly large" stocks of NHS blood factor concentrate products to treat haemophiliacs, but the RVI Haemophilia Centre director preferred to use commercially-made products.
In a letter from Dr Anne Collins, then-director of the Northern Regional Blood Transfusion Service (NRBTS), she asked Haemophilia Centre director Dr Peter Jones about using UK products rather than imported, saying: "We have an embarrassingly large supply of BPL Factor VIII in stock. How about it?"
Thousands of haemophiliacs who relied on the products were given Factor VIII contaminated with lethal viruses like HIV and Hepatitis C - more than 2,400 have died, and the number continues to increase.
