https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-69037200[size=inherit]Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he is truly sorry for the failures over the infected blood scandal, calling it a decades-long moral failure.[/font][/size][/font][/color]
He was responding to the public inquiry's [size=inherit]report, external[/font][/color] into the scandal, which has seen 30,000 people infected from contaminated blood treatments.[/size][/font][/color]
It found authorities covered up the scandal and exposed victims to unacceptable risks.[/font][/color]
Mr Sunak described it as a "day of shame for the British state".[/font][/color]
The Infected Blood Inquiry accused doctors, government and the NHS of letting patients catch HIV and hepatitis.[/font][/color]
About 3,000 have since died and more deaths will follow.[/font][/color]
The inquiry said victims had been failed "not once but repeatedly" by doctors, the NHS, government and others responsible for their safety.[/font][/color]
Mr Sunak told the House of Commons he was "truly sorry" for the failures.[/font][/color]
"Today's report shows a decades long moral failure at the heart of our national life. I want to make a wholehearted and unequivocal apology."[/font][/color]
He said the attitude of denial was hard to comprehend and was to "our eternal shame".[/font][/color]
And he promised to pay "whatever it costs" in compensation payments to victims, with details to follow on Tuesday.[/font][/color]
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer apologised too, describing it as one of the "gravest injustices" the country had seen and saying victims had "suffered unspeakably".[/font][/color]
