THE chairman of the hepatitis C tribunal, Mr Justice Finlay, was called on yesterday to give a clear and public vindication" of Patient X in his report. Her infected plasma was used, without her knowledge, in the making of anti D by the BTSB, the Blood Transfusion Service Board.
Mr Bernard Grogan, counsel for Transfusion Positive, of which Patient X is a member, said she had "felt an enormous burden of guilt that she was the source of infection for hundreds and hundreds of people". Describing her as "the unwitting, innocent conduit of infection", Mr Grogan said she sought "a full vindication from this tribunal".
Thanks to the tribunal, his clients no longer were "the forgotten victims of this tragedy". It had been shown, he said, that the spread of hepatitis C was not confined to women, but involved men and children as well.
There had been no satisfactory explanation as to how Patient X's plasma had come to be used by the BTSB, he said. Had Patient X presented herself at Pelican House as a donor, she would have been rejected "on each and every one of the BTSB's own donor selection procedures".
Mr Grogan described the BTSB's failure to apply these criteria as "recklessness bordering on criminal behaviour". He criticised the Department of Health for being "obsessed" with procedures in the UK when it came to introducing a hepatitis C screening test here and said that it had "ignored" all domestic and international expertise.
Referring to a case in which a donor had not been told he had tested positive for hepatitis C in December 1991, Mr Grogan said the BTSB should apply uniform procedures throughout the State rather than have separate procedures, as had been the case in Munster at that time.
He suggested that the chairman, Mr Justice Finlay, might recommend that "every effort be made to boost public confidence in the BTSB". His report should also underpin the findings of the Bain report on the reorganisation of the BTSB. In particular, he thought the chairman should recommend the immediate relocation of the BTSB to a teaching hospital.
Mr Paul Carroll, counsel for the Irish Kidney Association, suggested that a departmental review of the BTSB development plan should be undertaken. He also favoured a "consumers' council" for regular blood users.
