The failure of a consultant haematologist at Cork University Hospital to inform the Blood Transfusion Service Board (BTSB) that one of its products had infected someone with HIV "at the very least amounts to gross negligence by omission", it was claimed at the Lindsay tribunal.
Mr Martin Hayden, for the Irish Haemophilia Society, said the actions of Dr Paule Cotter in this regard were "inexcusable".
The doctor not only failed to inform anyone in December 1985 of the infection of one of her patients through non-heat-treated Pelican House factor 9, but she continued to use the product for two weeks after the patient, given the pseudonym Andrew, had tested positive for the virus, said Mr Hayden.
Had she passed on the information, at least one child with haemophilia B might have avoided infection, he added.
The untreated product continued to be used up to February 1986.
Mr Hayden noted that, like Prof Ian Temperley, Dr Cotter claimed to adhere to British treatment protocols when the facts suggested otherwise. Her failure to adhere to such protocols was both reckless and grossly negligent, he said.
In failing to act on her knowledge about the risk of non-heat-treated factor concentrates in 1985, he added, the doctor disregarded her "legal, professional and moral obligations to her patients". He characterised her system for testing patients for viruses as "casual and haphazard".
In her evidence to the tribunal, Dr Cotter was "evasive in respect of her replies" and tried to conceal the full extent of her culpability, said Mr Hayden.
He added: "The behaviour of Dr Cotter is in many respects reprehensible. Her failure to impose and adhere to treatment protocols, and her subsequent attempts to claim that she did, is inexcusable.
"Her system for testing patients for, and informing them of, HIV and hepatitis C infections was haphazard. Her failure to insist that only heat-treated factor 9 be used after January 1985 was reckless and careless.
"Her failure to quickly inform the BTSB that their product had caused an infection with HIV was culpable," said Mr Hayden.
In a later commentary on hospital services, Mr Hayden said resources for the treatment of haemophilia in the 1980s were "deplorably inadequate" even by the standards of the time.
