The families of thousands of patients given contaminated blood by the NHS have condemned an inquiry into the scandal as a whitewash and a waste of time. Patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C after receiving blood supplies which had not been properly tested. Campaigners estimate more than 30,000 patients across the UK were affected in the 1970s and 1980s, of whom 2,000 have died. Many had the rare blood disorder haemophilia and were given regular transfusions with a clotting agent known as Factor VIII to stop internal bleeding. Scroll down for video . The Penrose Report was burned by campaigner Glenn Wilkinson after it was published in Edinburgh this afternoon . Audience members, including Sandra Molyneux from Liverpool, reacted angrily to the Victims report's publication today . But this came from batches which had not been screened or treated for HIV and hepatitis C, a virus that infects the liver and can cause serious, sometimes fatal damage. The true scale of hepatitis C contracted via hospital transfusions has taken years to emerge because of the time it can take to start to experience symptoms. Dame Anita Roddick caught it after a hospital blood transfusion following the birth of her daughter Sam in 1971. The Body Shop founder lived with the disease for more than 30 years before discovering she had it, by which time she was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. She died in 2007 aged 64 of a brain haemorrhage, a rare complication of the disease. The scandal was described as the 'worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS' and yesterday the Prime Minister apologised on behalf of the Government. David Cameron addressed the Commons shortly after the Scottish government published the findings from its own six-year, £6million inquiry into what happened. But victims and bereaved relatives who had gathered at the National Museum in Edinburgh, where the findings were read out, called it a 'whitewash'. They are furious that the inquiry did not blame individual doctors, NHS staff or politicians and said nothing could have been done differently. Bill Wright from Haemophilia Scotland criticised the findings of the six year Penrose Inquiry today . Mr Cameron's apology follows a lengthy campaign by the Mail highlighting the plight of victims and relatives. Addressing MPs during Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, Mr Cameron said he wanted to recognise the 'pain and suffering experienced by people as a result of this tragedy'. The Prime Minister added: 'It is difficult to imagine the feelings of unfairness that people must feel as a result of being infected by something like hepatitis C or HIV as a result of a totally unrelated treatment within the NHS, and to each and every one of those people, I would like to say sorry on behalf of the Government for something that should not have happened.' In January, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood criticised the help provided to the thousands infected by contaminated blood during the 1970s and 80s. It said between 1970 and 1991, contaminated NHS blood products caused an estimated 32,718 people to be infected with hepatitis C. Between 1978 and 1985, 1,500 people were infected with the HIV virus in a similar way, most of whom were also infected with hepatitis C. The Scottish Government's Penrose Inquiry investigated only the cases of Scottish victims, and the widow of David Rusling, who died of hepatitis C after being infected during a treatment for haemophilia, said it was a waste of time. Lorna Rusling said: 'We have lost the heart and soul of our family. 'It just ruined years of our lives. We wanted the truth, we wanted them to come out and say 'we did things wrong'.' Stephen Wheatley, 53 – a haemophiliac who was infected with hepatitis C – added: 'It doesn't go deep enough, it doesn't give everybody's story. Everybody's case should have been in there. 'There are still so many people who don't know that they have actually got it. Some people maybe don't want to know.' By David Wilkes . It was a remedy that became a killer at the centre of a huge public health scandal. Factor VIII was a clotting agent developed in the 1970s for haemophiliacs. Their condition means their blood fails to clot, and a minor cut can put sufferers at risk of bleeding to death. US companies made Factor VIII from blood from donors including drug addicts and vagrants infected with hepatitis C and HIV who had been paid cash. The unscreened products were imported because Britain did not supply enough 'home-grown' product. A quarter of a century ago, the Daily Mail campaigned to highlight the plight of haemophiliacs infected with contaminated blood products as part of their NHS treatment. The families of thousands of patients given contaminated blood by the NHS have condemned an inquiry into the scandal as a whitewash and a waste of time . The Mail's coverage included telling the story of Allen White, then 36, a haemophiliac who contracted Aids through a blood clotting agent, under the headline: 'A blindness to moral justice has abandoned this dying man. Surely his family deserves better.' Mr White, a married father of two from Yorkshire, had to give up his job as a computer systems designer because of his deteriorating health. The article asked: 'Why doesn't the Government do the honourable thing about what the Haemophilia Society describes as 'the biggest tragedy in NHS history'?' After pressure on the Government to recognise the unique circumstances of the case, 1,200 haemophiliac Aids victims were promised £42million compensation in 1990. Regardless of whether they were taking legal action, those affected and their families got lump sums ranging from £21,000 to £60,500. Mr White said he would accept the offer to give him 'peace of mind' that his family would not be left penniless. But others said it was not enough, and accused the Government of 'buying off the embarrassment' of a court case. Scotland is the only part of the UK to hold an inquiry into the scandal. The Penrose Inquiry, which gave its findings yesterday, said 478 people acquired the hepatitis C virus from blood product therapy in Scotland and 2,500 acquired the virus from blood transfusion in Scotland between 1970 and 1991. Sixty patients acquired HIV from therapy with blood products and 18 from blood transfusion in Scotland. The Mail's coverage included telling the story of Allen White, then 36, a haemophiliac who contracted Aids through a blood clotting agent . The Penrose Inquiry did not have the power to summon witnesses from outside Scotland – and has done little to abate the anger of many victims. Mark Ward, of Peacehaven, East Sussex, who contracted hepatitis C and HIV from contaminated blood he received as a child, said yesterday he had been treated as nothing more than a 'lump of meat to be experimented on'. He told the BBC that the treatment was 'so dirty and filthy, and the places it was being sourced... anything could have been in that blood', adding: 'We were used as objects of research.' Three men who contracted hepatitis C from blood transfusions have started a legal case to challenge the support available to them, and it is likely further legal action will follow.
Thousands of patients contracted HIV and Hepatitis C after transfusions . 3,000 NHS patients acquired hepatitis C in Scotland in the 1970s and 80s . Further 78 patients acquired HIV from botched NHS procedures in Scotland . But six year inquiry today found not much more could have been done . Victims said report a 'whitewash' with some conclusions 'barely rational'
David Cameron today offered a formal apology to the NHS victims . The Prime Minister announced a new £25million fund to support victims .