FOLLOWING a report by The Argus, the NHS has said it “deeply regrets” infecting a man with HIV after giving him contaminated blood in the 1980s.

Last week we featured Peacehaven man Mark Ward, 45, who was one of thousands of haemophiliacs across the UK infected with either HIV or Hepatitis C during the 1970s and 1980s – a scandal described as the ‘worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS’.

Many of the 7,000 people infected have suffered years of illness, distress and death after mistakenly being given blood products taken from high-risk donors such as prostitutes and prisoners in the US.

Mr Ward was infected at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead when he was 14 and told The Argus a nurse shouted his diagnosis across a waiting room.

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust has since told The Argus: “In the late 1970s and early 1980s the treatment for patients with severe haemophilia was regular injections of a protein which was obtained from donated blood.

“During this period blood products given to patients were not screened for HIV and hepatitis C.

“Sadly, many British patients with severe haemophilia who were treated with the protein during this time became infected with HIV or hepatitis C.

“Along with other NHS hospitals who treated patients with haemophilia during this period, we deeply regret this.

“At the Royal Free Hospital, those patients infected with HIV were given their diagnosis in 1985.

“At the time, our policy was to tell patients about their diagnoses in a private setting and that policy remains in place today.

“The patients were offered medical support and counselling following their diagnoses, as they still are. “The treatment given to haemophilia patients now is not associated with risk of transmission of HIV or hepatitis.”

A statement from campaign group Tainted Blood, which appeals for justice on behalf of people infected and affected by contaminated blood, said it welcomed the hospital’s statement of regret but challenged its recollection of historical events.

Joseph Peaty and Sue Threakall, of Tainted Blood, told The Argus: “Although the RFH state they had policies in place for the provision of counselling and medical support, with patients being informed sensitively in a private setting, we find their assurances at odds with patient experiences reported to us and to several public inquiries.

“In 2009 Lord Archer’s non-statutory public inquiry reviewed accounts from many of those infected including those affected from the RFH.

“These accounts demonstrated that patients were not offered counselling and were not informed in the most appropriate or sensitive manner.

“The inquiry criticised these failings and recommended that the inadequacies be addressed.”