THE IRISH Blood Transfusion Service will be “seriously challenged” to maintain international standards in the current economic climate, the organisation’s chief executive has said.
Andrew Kelly said the service, like many other organisations, had to embark on a series of cost-cutting measures in the past year to reduce its cost base.
“The economic environment in Ireland will continue to be difficult for the next two to three years and in that context, the service will be required to make further cost savings and reduce its prices,” Mr Kelly said in the organisation’s latest annual report published yesterday.
In 2009, it cut costs by getting reductions on all supplier contracts of between 8 and 10 per cent, the elimination of overtime in the laboratories of the national blood centre, and the introduction of an extended 7am-7pm working day. There were also reductions in non-pay costs including travel and subsistence and an initiative to tender with the UK Blood Service for blood bags generated significant savings through economies of scale.
While any new initiative must be implemented in a cost-neutral manner at the blood bank, Mr Kelly said the primary function of the blood transfusion service to provide a consistent and safe supply of blood to patients “must not be overlooked or compromised in the quest for cost reductions and price savings”.
Meanwhile, the report reveals the service’s pension fund was declared insolvent in March 2009. It is obliged to put forward a funding proposal to the Pensions Board by November. There are 610 active members, 339 deferred members and 81 pensioners in the scheme.
The annual report also says much energy and resources were expended by the service during the last year on preparing for the global swine flu pandemic. It added that while flu probably could be spread by blood transfusion, there was no evidence to show the H1N1 virus was transmitted by blood transfusion in Ireland or anywhere else.
The report notes the service began selling plasma collected as part of whole blood donations to a commercial company earlier this year. The blood product has not been used by the service since 2001 due to the risks of vCJD and was discarded.
The service said it was costing it about €140,000 a year to incinerate the unused plasma. It expects to get €800,000 a year from the commercial company for the product, which it is using to test diagnostic equipment.
Donors were surveyed on the their attitude to such a commercial arrangement in advance and “had no major issues with this proposal”, the report says.
Dr William Murphy, IBTS medical and scientific director, said that while a test for vCJD seemed imminent in 2009, the new technology did not prove itself in field trials.