Experts to resolve blood row

A GROUP of international medical experts is set to decide within weeks whether blood donations should be tested at just one centre.

Their report should finally resolve the ongoing row between the Irish Blood Transfusion Service and medical experts in Munster, who are anxious to keep a second test centre in Cork.

The decision by Dublin management three years ago to move to single-site testing at its St James’s Hospital headquarters has encountered vigorous opposition from doctors, backed by the Southern Health Board.

They fear the removal of testing from Cork, currently carried out at the IBTS centre at St Finbarr’s Hospital, might jeopardise patient safety because of distance factors and consequent lack of backup facilities.

The Southern Health Board recently offered the IBTS a site at Cork University Hospital for a possible upgraded Munster testing centre.

The SHB accepted the IBTS proposal last year to appoint a panel of three experts, one nominated by each body and a third independent chairperson, to assess the pros and cons of dual and single-site testing.

The panel, Professor Tommy Soderstrom from Sweden for the IBTS, Scottish professor John Cash for the SHB and Professor Tom Zuck from the United States, are all top names in the field of haematology.

Since first meeting in May of this year, they have visited the IBTS’ Cork centre and its modern facility at St James’s Hospital in Dublin. They met with medical staff in Cork on Monday and are due to have a final meeting with SHB chairperson Batt O’Keeffe TD and his IBTS counterpart, Michael McLoone, this week before beginning their final considerations.

The experts were given two months from their first meeting to come up with a recommendation on the issue and Deputy O’Keeffe said he is confident they will meet the deadline at the end of this month.

Tensions between IBTS management and its staff in Cork have been particularly high recently, with Munster regional director Dr Joan Power put on administrative leave by chief executive Martin Hynes last month.

The IBTS board reinstated Dr Power six days later and suspended Mr Hynes, who challenged the suspension in the High Court before deciding last week to step down at the end of October with a severance package.

While that row centred on a request for details of former donors, it was another sign of the ongoing difficulties at the centre of last year’s report into the internal workings of the organisation.

The study is believed to have been strongly critical of senior staff in both centres, but has never been published.