A doctor who for a period in 1985 was the sole consultant at the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre said yesterday she believed she did everything in her power to prevent any of her patients becoming infected with HIV.
Dr Helena Daly served between July and September 1985 as a locum doctor at the centre while its director, Prof Ian Temperley, was on sabbatical leave. She said she switched as many of her patients as possible on to products which had been heat-treated to guard against HIV when she discovered the BTSB was continuing to supply untreated products.
She confronted Blood Bank officials in August 1985 over their failure to heat-treat their products. She said they felt her concern was "exaggerated" and considered her suggestion to use heat-treated commercial Factor 9 instead of untreated BTSB product "outrageous".
She said she felt she did not have the authority to make a unilateral decision to cease using BTSB products but she did change patients over to heat-treated commercial Factor 8 and Factor 9 where possible.
Dr Daly said she regretted that what she did was not more effective and she was "devastated" to learn that three haemophilia B patients were infected with untreated BTSB Factor 9 administered in 1985.
However, she had no proof that the BTSB product was unsafe. Her belief that it should not have been used was then "outside the mainstream" in the Republic and UK.
Dr Daly also rejected claims by some witnesses that counselling was not offered or given to haemophiliacs who tested positive for HIV. She said she counselled 93 haemophiliacs and family members during her three months at the centre.
