FIVE Blood Transfusion Service Board (BTSB) employees were trawling through voluminous amounts of documents nine hours a day, five days a week, in preparation for a case being taken by a woman claiming she was infected with the hepatitis C virus, the High Court was told yesterday.
Ms Brigid Ellen McCole is taking the action against the BTSB, the Minister for Health, the National Drugs Advisory Board, Ireland and the Attorney General. The main hearing is due to start on October 8th.
She claims she was infected with the hepatitis C virus and that the BTSB used plasma in 1976 and 1977 from a female plasma exchange patient who to its knowledge had been clinically diagnosed as suffering from infective hepatitis and had become jaundiced.
Last month, Miss Justice Laffoy ruled that the woman was entitled to seek information from the board's employees relating to the case dating back to 1976. She gave the BTSB until July 19th to answer certain questions which would be contained in its documentation.
Yesterday, the BTSB sought more time to produce the answers and the documentation.
Mr John Rogers SC, for Ms McCole, said the BTSB had said it was finding more and more documents. He understood it was looking for more time. He was opposing that.
Mr Donal O'Donnell SC, for the BTSB, said it was not possible to "put up or shut up" and five employees were conducting an extensive search for nine hours a day, five days a week. It was an extensive labour intensive exercise. The problem was there were voluminous numbers of files and a lot of the information in them was irrelevant to this case.
He said the board wanted two to three weeks more to put in an affidavit concerning the discovery of documents.
Miss Justice Laffoy said that it was an awkward situation for the BTSB. She had no option but to give it the time it sought.