The STATE'S former leading treater of haemophiliacs apologised yesterday for allowing five years to elapse before informing a mother that her three sons were infected with hepatitis C.
Prof Ian Temperley said he regretted it "very bitterly" and accepted responsibility on behalf of the medical team at the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, of which he was director.
The mother, who gave evidence to the tribunal last year under the pseudonym Felicity, was not told of the infections until October 1995, even though positive test results were available in late 1990.
Prof Temperley said it was a "very unhappy" mistake, which should not have happened. The only explanation he could give was that the mother generally attended the day-treatment centre in the interim period rather than the outpatient section, where most patients were told of positive test results.
He noted, by way of mitigation, that "resources were stretched" and staff had a heavy workload treating AIDS patients.
In her evidence, Felicity described the delay as "unforgivable" as it meant her sons lost out on five years' treatment. She said she learnt of the infections only through a chance comment by a nurse at the centre.
In relation to other cases, Prof Temperley said attempts to inform patients of test results for hepatitis C and HIV were hampered by their failure to attend scheduled appointments. A lot of patients did not attend, he said, not because they were being difficult but because they felt it was not necessary.
One patient cited in this regard was Kevin, who tested positive for hepatitis C in January 1989 but was not told of the result until January 1993. In September 1991, the tribunal heard, Prof Temperley wrote to the patient noting he had failed to keep three recent appointments. In the end, the doctor said he had to send a letter to Kevin's GP advising the patient to come to the centre.
A similar difficulty occurred in the case of Ciaran, a haemophiliac who lived in a rural area, some distance from Dublin, said Prof Temperley. The patient was reported positive for HIV in August 1985 but was not informed until September 1987. Prof Temperley said that for two years he sent out appointment dates - seven in all between February 1986 and September 1987 - "but he did not come up".
In relation to Liam, a haemophiliac who tested positive for both HIV and hepatitis C in September 1992 but was only told of the former infection at the time, Prof Temperley said he felt it would have put "a very great load" on the patient's shoulders had he been told of both infections simultaneously.
He admitted he should have mentioned the positive test result for hepatitis C in a letter to Liam's GP in November 1992 but he was "concentrating on his HIV" at the time. The patient did not discover he was hepatitis C positive until July 1995.
