Review criticises IBTS

AN independent review of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) delay in notifying blood donors in the nineties that had contracted Hepatitis C has criticised the organisation’s management and reporting structures.

The study by German expert Professor Bernhard Kubanek concludes that differences between the Cork and Dublin centres in informing donors of test results “resulted from more than just different opinions of the two directors of the centres in Cork and Dublin”.

The study was initiated by the IBTS after it emerged during the Finlay Tribunal in 1996 that regional director Dr Joan Power, the whistleblower in the hepatitis C scandal, had delayed in informing a number of donors of their positive diagnosis.