The Southern Health Board is to seek a meeting with the Irish Blood Transfusion Service in advance of any formal decisions by the service on the recommendations by an international panel of experts on dual-site blood testing.
The health board is also to insist that Dr Catherine Molloy, SHB vice-chairman, and one of the leading advocates for the retention and development of the Cork IBTS centre, is included in any meeting with the IBTS.
The international panel's recommendation last September was for two centres, vindicating the health board's position, SHB members said at a meeting earlier this week. The panel's report had been published last September, yet its recommendations had not yet been implemented, Mr Bernard Allen TD and health board member said.
It was important there was dialogue and an exchange of views before any formal decisions were made, Mr John Dennehy TD said.
He was responding to a reply from the IBTS to the SHB's request for clarification on dual-site testing and the implementation of the international panel's report.
In early January the IBTS had met and discussed the report in detail, "including comments from the chief executive regarding the financial and other implications of the report of the international panel on single-site testing", the replying letter by Mr Michael McLoone, IBTS chairman, said.
A draft report for the IBTS board's approval was being prepared, he said, and a formal meeting to consider recommendations from the IBTS to the Department of Health was being held on February 14th, Mr McLoone wrote. He had offered to meet the SHB chairman, Mr Batt O'Keeffe, and chief executive Mr Sean Hurley after that meeting to update them on the formal decisions taken by the board and its recommendations to the Minister for Health.
However, SHB members are insisting the meeting takes place beforehand.