A mother who lost her son due to the NHS’s contaminated blood scandal has told an inquiry that both medical professionals and the government had been involved in “a complicity of silence.”

Della Hirsch, 74, of Highgate, told the preliminary hearing of the independent Infected Blood Inquiry on Tuesday: “It is now quite clear that many doctors and others involved in the medical field did know that the treatment they were using was suspect.

“I believe by lying and keeping this truth from the community we were denied the possibility of safe treatment years earlier. Silence screwed us.”

Mrs Hirsch’s son Nick was diagnosed with Haemophilia at an early age. He was given contaminated clotting factor products during treatment as a child, developing Hepatitis C as a result.

A talented musician, he was a singer for the band The Dirty Feel, but did not live to see the release of the group's debut album. He died of the disease in 2012, just ten months after welcoming his first child with his long-term partner. He was 35.

Mrs Hirsch told the preliminary inquiry: "Both medical professionals and others – including the Department of Health – involved in blood products, were engaged in a complicity of silence.”

“So many medical professionals did not share these suspicions, and at the same time, made it impossible to ask questions or raise doubts."

In the 1970s and 1980s, more than 4,000 haemophilia sufferers contracted Hepatitis C after being given contaminated clotting factor products by the NHS, with over 1,200 also developing HIV as a result of the products. To date, over 1,200 people have died as a result of the NHS treatments they received.

In 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that there would be a public inquiry into the scandal. Preliminary hearings were held this week. The full Inquiry is expected to begin in April next year.

In her statement to the preliminary hearing, Mrs Hirsch thanked her sister, Baroness Featherstone, the former Liberal Democrat MP, for her campaigning on the issue.

“We were made to feel as if we were to blame, we were treated like pariahs,” she told the hearing.

“That seemed like a standard procedure. The misery and appalling lack of care can never be overstated. I was appalled when I was dealing with [health officials] on behalf of my son’s family.

"They were chaotic. They looked at any financial assistance as charity. At this stage my son had only been dead for three weeks.

“This is our inquiry, where we can ask all the questions we weren’t allowed to get out of our mouths. We can finally hope that our inquiry will look into all of the Department of Health’s dark corners.”