As all treatments had to be administered in hospital, the IHS supported families from all around the country visiting their relatives who were hospitalised for significant time periods.
This led to a national hepatitis C screening programme, which discovered many more people infected, who had at some point in their lives received blood transfusions supplied by the BTSB.
These included people who had been in accidents, had surgical operations or were suffering from other illnesses such as haemophilia or kidney disease and need regular blood transfusions, which the BTSB, prior to 1994, had not screened for hepatitis C (and several other viruses).
The final report pointed out how extremely difficult it was for haemophiliacs to prove hepatitis C infection could be traced back to any specific blood product.
Minister Brian Cowan instituted a new tribunal of inquiry into the practices of the BTSB, specifically focused on HIV infection of products used to treat haemophiliacs.
[7] The tribunal of inquiry into the circumstances of infection of persons with haemophilia with HIV opened on 27 September 1999[8] and began hearings on 2 May 2000, and ran for 196 days.
[9] Throughout the period of open hearings, the IHS compiled a weekly newsletter of testimonies and legal arguments, which were sent to all members of the Society to keep them informed.