Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 4 Apr 2001

Vol. 534 No. 1

Written Answers. - Blood Transfusion Service.

Jim O'Keeffe

Question:

43 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Health and Children his views on the merits of having full testing procedures to best international standards for blood transfusion purposes in Cork; and the steps he proposes to take to achieve this. [9346/01]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

I am convinced that the essential requirement for every patient regardless of location who requires a blood transfusion is that the safety and quality of blood component complies with international standards. I am advised that the donor selection and testing programmes at the Irish Blood Transfusion Service comply with EU and Council of Europe Guidelines, are as comprehensive as any in Europe and conform to existing international standards. Over and above these requirements the IBTS and the transfusion services in Northern Ireland currently rely on the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service to conduct PCR testing for Hepatitis C. The availability of this test performed as it is outside the State is an additional safety measure for the benefit of patients throughout the country. These arrangements are evidence that the quality and range of tests actually performed are more important that the location of testing services.

I am also convinced that the IBTS operates in a fast moving and challenging area of the health system in which there are increasing demands on transfusion services to adapt and change. Clinicians are increasingly assessing the use of alternatives to blood transfusion for their patients. A recent transfusion guideline which has been prepared by the National Blood Users Group advises that the use of proven strategies that reduce exposure to allogeneic transfusion should be made widely available, and applied where appropriate. Such strategies include autologous transfusion techniques, surgical, anaesthetic and pharmacological approaches that reduce blood loss. The chief medical officer of my Department has also recently advised clinicians that the avoidance of unnecessary transfusion of allogeneic blood constitutes the most important approach available in reducing any possible risk patients of infection with variant CJD through blood transfusion.

The current debate on testing involving the Dublin and Cork centres of the IBTS attempts to portray the organisation as split on geographic lines and seems to visualise Dublin and Cork as separate or competing entities. In my opinion this is clearly not a platform on which to develop a national transfusion service. The governance function of the board in organising and managing its remit must be respected regardless of geography. This is an essential objective if the service is to meet the challenges to which I have already ready referred. In exercise of its governance function, the board of the IBTS, based on a recommendation from its chief executive officer and national medical director, has agreed to establish a three person committee of international experts of standing in the field of blood transfusion to review the decision of the board of July 1999 to consolidate testing at its national headquarters. The membership of the committee will comprise a nominee of the IBTS and of the Southern Health Board and the third person is to be jointly agreed. This is an important development and the testing issue raised by the Deputy can best be addressed in this open and transparent process.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that my Department gave approval on 23 February to the IBTS for the immediate establishment of a project team to prepare a design brief for new facilities for the IBTS in Cork. The project team has been established and its first meeting will take place on Friday 6 March.