Life-saving blood-screening is faulty, warns Irish Medicines Board

A BLOOD-screening machine which can prevent serious complications, even death, is faulty, the Irish Medicines Board has warned

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) has been ordered by the IMB to carry out a risk-assessment of its Cork-based irradiator a machine which prevents a rare but sometimes fatal reaction in some patients who receive blood.

The IBTS has also been forced to suspend its re-routing programme at its Cork facility, where units of blood not used in one hospital are recalled and sent to another. According to the minutes of the Board's December meeting, an IMB inspection was critical of quality control at the St Finbarr's Hospital site. "QA [quality assurance) is not sufficiently aware of the urgency and extent of product recall," the minutes read.