The Department of Health reached "agreement in principle" with the BTSB to pay for the collection of Irish plasma which could be sent overseas to be processed into blood clotting agents one month after a haemophiliac was diagnosed with AIDS in a Dublin hospital.
The tribunal heard yesterday that a meeting between the sides took place in late 1984 to review the possibility of producing Factor 8 clotting agent from "native plasma" to reduce the AIDS risk.
A follow-up meeting was planned and on November 29th, 1984, the then BTSB director wrote to the Department with details of the cost of procuring Irish plasma. He said "in light of very recent events" he wanted to discuss costing at an early meeting.
The BTSB's present deputy national medical director, Dr Emer Lawlor, in evidence said the recent event he was referring to was the fact that a haemophilia patient at St James's Hospital had been diagnosed with AIDS that November. A board meeting of the BTSB shortly afterwards was told that the Department of Health had agreed in principle to pay the cost of collecting plasma in the Republic.
Around this time the tribunal heard that Prof Ian Temperley, former director of the national haemophilia treatment centre, wrote to the BTSB saying he would not accept non-heat-treated products in 1985. This treatment would kill the HIV virus.
The decision by the BTSB to send Irish plasma abroad to be made into the Factor 8 clotting agent represented a "sudden, complete change" in its plans in 1984, counsel for the tribunal Mr John Finlay SC said.
Counsel asked why plasma wasn't sent abroad earlier. Dr Lawlor said she didn't believe this would have been feasible but it probably did not occur to the blood bank to do so. Even if it did, the BTSB would not have had enough plasma from Irish donors to generate sufficient Factor 8 to meet its needs.