THE Blood Transfusion Service Board must ensure that fail safe information systems are put in place as a matter of urgency, the Fianna Fail spokesman on health, Mr Brian Cowen, said yesterday. This follows the case of an anaemic woman who was mistakenly told by the BTSB that she had infectious hepatitis when she offered to donate blood.
Mr Cowen said he did not wish to comment in detail on the case, "which he described as "regret table". Staff at the BTSB were under a lot of pressure and people were "particularly sensitive at the moment", he added. "The BTSB has to be allowed get on with its job of ensuring adequate blood supply to the safest possible standards, and restoring confidence in the system."
He added that it was not Fianna Fail's view that the BTSB should be disbanded and re established, as had been called for by the Progressive Democrats leader, Ms Mary Harney. However, proper information systems were required to ensure that incidents similar to that which happened with Ms Eveleen McGrath last week do not recur, no matter how inadvertent the human error.
Ms McGrath told The Irish Times that she would not have raised the issue were it not that a BTSB doctor had acted in a jocose matter and suggested that other women may have mistakenly received letters which said they had hepatitis when they were simply anaemic and could not give blood.
"This made me ask how many more are there out there who may be traumatised by such an experience? It's not something you would tell everyone, I have hepatitis. Fortunately, I knew I hadn't got hepatitis. I just destroyed the letter."
The letter she was given was simply handed to her without an explanation but in the past when her blood was refused because of lack of iron, a BTSB staff member had explained why her blood was being refused. "I'm 100 per cent sure I haven't got hepatitis. I know my family medical history in detail. I have occasionally been found to be anaemic before. But if I was unsure about my health, I would be very scared about what happened. What if it was a first time donor?"
Ms McGrath, who lives in Dublin and has donated blood on 28 occasions, said she had still to receive a written apology from the BTSB. Against such a background, she said she intended to ask the BTSB to show her her file when she goes to donate blood again, to evaluate how the matter was dealt with.
While she had not been traumatised by the incident, she found it hard to come to terms with how lackadaisical the BTSB had been. Her initial reaction was to wonder if there had been some immediate" blood test carried out on a sample, of her blood by a new machine. She then rang back to ask if the blood test was correct and asked to speak to a BTSB doctor.
It was likely, Ms McGrath said, hat the BTSB attitude to her was similar to that shown to others. "I agree with Mary Harney. The whole board should be disbanded and all its staff should be retrained. They are dealing with people's lives and they are at risk. I'm not concerned about my experience. I just want things changed. I want the BTSB to say that if something goes wrong, it will be rectified. Things have to be put straight, especially for first time donors."
