FG raises letters to blood donors

The Minister for Health "must take a more active and direct role" in monitoring the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, the Dáil was told.

Fine Gael's Health spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mitchell, said it was very worrying that the IBTS had included people infected with hepatitis C in mail shots seeking blood donations. She said that with its record, the blood service had to be above reproach, and it was not enough for the Minister to say there had been a change of culture. "He must personally ensure that this is the case."

Ms Mitchell was referring to a newspaper report about letters to hepatitis C donors from the IBTS.

Mr Brian Lenihan, the Minister of State for Health, said two people with hepatitis C had received the letter. But he stressed that the letter was "in no way an invitation to donate [blood], rather it was informing donors of the change to IBTS guidelines and of the possibility that they could be reinstated onto the IBTS active donor panel".

The letter was "eliciting further information about the clinical details of their jaundice and their current state of health and it was not an invitation to donate, nor could the donor donate on presentation of the letter or questionnaire at their local clinic".

He added that IBTS had apologised for any hurt that might have been caused by its error in sending letters about blood donations to two blood donors infected with hepatitis C.

Mr Lenihan said that once the error came to light, the IBTS has amended its coding system so that in future donors who were hepatitis C-positive would be deferred "with a code that is used exclusively for this purpose".

The service wrote to 8,000 donors who had been deferred because of a history of jaundice in childhood.

A new test which could detect hepatitis B at very low levels allowed the service to accept donations from donors who had jaundice before their 13th birthday.