Bucks NHS chief calls blood scandal findings ‘shocking’ as cover-up is revealed
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Dr Nick Broughton said there were lessons to learn from the scandal, which saw 30,000 people in the UK contract HIV and hepatitis C after they were given contaminated blood during the 1970s and 1980s. More than 3,000 people have died due to infected blood, blood products and tissue, according to the report’s findings.
“This is an important moment for the NHS,” the chief executive of the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) said in Aylesbury on Tuesday (21 May).
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Hide AdSpeaking during a meeting of the board, he addressed the scathing findings of the newly published 2,527-page report by former judge Brian Langstaff, who chaired the inquiry into the scandal.
![People demonstrate as relatives of victims of the NHS infected blood scandal hand in a letter to 10 Downing Street pleading with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that "action is needed now" to set up a body to give full compensation. INQUIRY Blood Bereaved Families.photo from: Victoria Jones/PA Wire](https://www.bucksherald.co.uk/webimg/b25lY21zOjFkZDBiMGI4LWJiZjQtNDYyYS04OWU2LWUyNjcyNjk4YzljNDpjNjg2NmJjOS01YzkwLTQxMjctOWZkZS0yMGViMWU3ZmU5OGY=.jpg?crop=3:2,smart&width=640&quality=65)
![People demonstrate as relatives of victims of the NHS infected blood scandal hand in a letter to 10 Downing Street pleading with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that "action is needed now" to set up a body to give full compensation. INQUIRY Blood Bereaved Families.photo from: Victoria Jones/PA Wire](/img/placeholder.png)
In his report, Mr Langstaff said he had found a ‘chilling’ and ‘pervasive’ cover-up of the scandal by the government and NHS which ‘hid much of the truth’ to try and ‘save face and to save expense’.
Dr Nick said: “It is fair to say that the report’s findings were shocking, sobering and undoubtedly will have a profound impact on the wider NHS.”
The health chief noted that the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and NHS England chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, had both apologised over the findings of the report.
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Hide AdHe added: “The report is complicated, it is long, there are important findings for us. It is fair to say that we have not yet been able to fully take stock of what this will mean for the ICB and indeed the system that we lead.”