The board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service yesterday decided it should continue with blood-testing at both its Dublin and Cork centres. In doing so it has adopted the main recommendation of an international panel of experts who examined the issue of dual-site testing last year.
When their report was issued last September, one of the experts, Prof Thomas Zuck, of the University of Cincinnati, said the panel was recommending two testing centres so that one could act as back-up in the event of any problems experienced by the other.
Yesterday's decision by the IBTS board reverses a controversial plan drawn up by the blood bank in 1999 to end testing in Cork. That decision to pursue single-site testing caused uproar in the south and dominated several meetings of the Southern Health Board.
Mr Michael McLoone, chairman of the IBTS, said the board had given detailed consideration to the 11 recommendations made by the panel of experts and agreed a plan to ensure they were implemented. "The implementation plan will be forwarded to the Minister for Health," he said.
The three-person panel of experts also recommended the building and development of a new Cork testing facility, and suggested the ITBS employ a number of transfusion specialists if possible.