The former chief executive officer of St James's Hospital, Dublin, yesterday defended the practice of putting the remains of haemophiliacs who died of infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C in sealed body bags.
Mr Liam Dunbar told the Lindsay tribunal the hospital had to act to prevent the spread of infection to relatives of the deceased and staff. He said he was guided in this policy by those in the hospital's infection control unit.
Mr Dunbar, who was hospital CEO from 1985 to 1995, before becoming CEO of the BTSB, said he was aware of the anxieties being expressed by relatives about the manner in which bodies were handled and he wished to ease these as much as possible.
He had invited a number of parties, including the secretary of the Funeral Directors' Association, the Irish Haemophilia Society and AIDS Action Alliance to a meeting in July 1993 so that a protocol could be agreed on how bodies would be handled.
Minutes of the meeting recorded Mr Dunbar telling those present that time was given to families to view a deceased person in their ward. "The remains are then placed in a special liner and transported to the mortuary. If a post-mortem is not carried out, the remains must continue to be sealed in the special liner to ensure absolute protection of those involved," he told them.
It was agreed to find out if it would be possible to have a clear panel inserted in the special liner to allow viewing of the deceased's face.
Questioned by counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Finlay SC, about the policy, Mr Dunbar said many people handling the bodies would have had little knowledge of infectious diseases and the hospital had to be vigilant to protect them.
He added that bodies could only be left on wards for a limited period but staff were hypersensitive to the feelings of relatives and went out of their way to ensure families were contacted to view bodies while they were still in a ward.
The tribunal heard that a dispute between St James's and the Eastern Health Board in the 1980s meant St James's had to carry the cost of blood products used by patients for home therapy in the region, which it believed should have been paid by the health board. The accumulated cost amounted to £2 million.
Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr Martin Hayden, suggested if the money had been in St James's, it could have financed better treatment facilities for haemophiliacs. Mr Dunbar admitted that if the hospital had the money, "things would have been so much better".