Regional blood chief ‘failed to act quickly’

THE head of the regional haemophilia treatment centre in Cork should have acted more quickly and taken greater steps to ensure a safer blood product was available to her patients, the Lindsay Report states.

Dr Paula Cotter, the consultant haematologist in charge of the Cork Regional Centre since 1979, moved swiftly to have the Blood Transfusion Service Board buy only heat-treated products for her patients with haemophilia A once the superior safety of the products became known in late 1984.

However, she did not make the same request for patients with haemophilia B until December 1985.