A look-back programme to examine what happened to the blood of HIV-positive donors was initiated by the Blood Transfusion Service Board for legal rather than medical reasons, the Lindsay tribunal heard yesterday.
Dr Terry Walsh, the agency's former chief medical consultant, agreed it was paradoxical that he had sought a look-back on medical grounds in September 1989 to no avail, yet one took place on legal grounds less than two years later.
He said he had been instructed by the chief executive officer, Mr Ted Keyes, to provide information on what happened to the blood of two HIV-positive donors who gave donations prior to the introduction of HIV testing in 1985. Dr Walsh presented the information to Mr Keyes in January 1991.
Dr Walsh agreed that, with the information he and other board officials had provided, one could have traced the infection of a number of haemophiliacs to BTSB-made factor 9.
Dr Walsh stressed, however, he did not make these connections at the time. He had been looking at the issue "purely from an abstract, litigation" point of view, he said.
Asked whether Mr Keyes told him to furnish the information in the context of legal action being taken by the Irish Haemophilia Society, Dr Walsh said that was his recollection. Furthermore, he said it was his understanding the document he prepared was for the purpose of discovery.
The tribunal heard discovery was delivered by the board in March 1991 and the litigation was settled without admission of liability in July 1991.
The inquiry was not told, however, whether Dr Walsh's report was included in the discovery.
Later, Dr Walsh rejected the claim made last week by the blood bank's deputy medical director, Dr Emer Lawlor, that he had suggested to her in 1991 that BTSB-made factor 9 had probably not caused the infection of haemophiliacs. He said he was "upset" to read the claim and said he would "never" have declared the BTSB was not responsible.
Dr Walsh, however, admitted to neglecting to refer to the Pelican House infections in a reply to a Council of Europe survey on AIDS in May 1990. His reply stated: "No transfusion-associated HIV infection has been found to date in Ireland (other than haemophiliacs who receive commercial clotting concentrate)."
Dr Walsh said he should have mentioned the Factor 9 patients and that was an "error" or "oversight" on his part.
Asked if he could have made a similar oversight in 1991 when talking to Dr Lawlor, he replied: "I don't think so, no."
