A doctor said yesterday he felt he was "becoming a bore" at board meetings of the Blood Transfusion Service in the late 1980s, such was the number of times he told them BTSB products had caused HIV infections in haemophiliacs.
Cross-examined by counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr Martin Hayden, as to whether he told the infected patients that a Pelican House product had caused their HIV, Prof Ian Temperley said that at first he did not. To further questions he said he did not know if he told patients the cause of their infections.
The tribunal has heard that BTSB Factor 9 clotting agent was responsible for the infection of seven haemophiliacs in the State with HIV between 1985 and 1986. The haemophiliacs were not aware when they received compensation from the State in 1991 that BTSB products had caused their infection.
Prof Temperley was asked about the minutes of a BTSB meeting in February 1989 in which concern was expressed about statements made by the Irish Haemophilia Society which suggested BTSB products had caused infections when it was quite clear the source of infection was imported products.
Mr Hayden said it appeared the board believed only imported products were the "culprits".
Prof Temperley said he had not attended the meeting but would have received the minutes. The reference in the minutes could have passed him by, he said, before stressing he had told board members several times that Pelican House products had caused infections.
Prof Temperley was also questioned about the infection of a patient with HIV in 1986 who was given heat-treated Factor 8 manufactured by the Armour pharmaceutical company. The batch, A28306, was only heat-treated at 60 degrees for 30 hours.
Prof Temperley said he wrote to Armour in January 1987 seeking information on the batch. To his annoyance, he never got a satisfactory response.
The doctor said he did not voice his concern about this matter when the BTSB entered an agreement with Armour to make Factor 8 from plasma sourced in the Republic. He just stressed the importance of using a heat-treatment protocol similar to that used in the UK.
However, a similar regime of heat-treatment was not adopted. Prof Temperley said he thought at the time the UK was using 68 degrees for 72 hours but they were actually using 80 degrees.
He did not realise until during the tribunal that he had given wrong advice.