Dual blood test site move ‘ends sorry saga’

THE decision by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) to have dual site testing in Dublin and Cork ended a long, sad and sorry saga, Southern Health Board chairman Batt O’Keeffe said last night.

Health board members and the medical profession in Munster had serious reservations about a previous blood bank decision in 1999 to centralise testing in Dublin.

Yesterday, the board of the IBTS agreed on an implementation plan for the Report of the International Panel on donation testing in Ireland that urged that testing in Cork should be retained and developed.