A UK-WIDE public inquiry examining the scandal of contaminated blood products will hear evidence from Scottish medics next month.

Professor Christopher Ludlam, a former director of the Edinburgh haemophilia centre, will appear at a series of hearings scheduled over four days from Tuesday, December 1.

Three other clinicians who treated haemophilia patients in Glasgow at the time of the scandal will give evidence the following week – Dr Anna Pettigrew, Professor Ian Hann and Professor Gordon Lowe.

The infected blood inquiry, which began in September 2018, is examining how as many as 30,000 people across the UK – including around 3000 in Scotland – were infected with HIV and hepatitis through contaminated blood products imported from the US in the 1970s and 1980s. Thousands have since died.

Chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff, it is also looking at the impact on their families, how authorities including government responded and whether there was a cover-up.

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It is being held live in Fleetbank House, central London, where it is being streamed online due to Covid.

The Scottish medics, who will attend remotely via video-link, are expected to be quizzed on issues including knowledge of risk, patient consent, testing and the response at the time to new and emerging viruses.

Campaigners have battled for decades to find answers over what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS. Many of those infected were haemophiliacs, while others had received blood transfusions.

The six-year Penrose Inquiry held in Scotland into the disaster, which concluded in 2015 and cost £12 million, was labelled a “whitewash” by victims.

Last year survivors in Scotland gave evidence to the UK inquiry about a “coalition of secrecy” surrounding the blood scandal.

One man said medics had known he had hepatitis C nine years before he was told.

Bill Wright, chair of support group Haemophilia Scotland, said he hoped the UK inquiry would allow a fuller understanding of what went wrong.

He said: “The evidence from medical witnesses so far from south of the Border is proving very upsetting for some survivors who are following it.

“So Scottish survivors are steeling themselves in anticipation of what is to come.”