Sir, - I wish to comment on the proposal by the Blood Transfusion Service Board to recommend and endorse the closure of the blood-testing facility at the Cork centre. The service in Munster will be emasculated with the elimination of its testing service.
It was reassuring and encouraging to read that the Board of the Mercy Hospital in Cork and the Consultants of University College Hospital are unanimous in their support of the retention of the blood testing facility in Cork.
It is absurd to downgrade the Cork test centre which has an outstanding record of providing a quality service to the patients of Munster for 60 years; obtained ISO 9002 (which Dublin has not yet achieved); been asked by the very Board that seeks to downgrade it, to validate the new computer system to be introduced in Dublin.
The BTSB spokeswoman's response that Finland has only one PCR testing laboratory is an unfair comparison with this country. The vast majority of the population of Finland lives in an area around the capital Helsinki. Finland has also a very sophisticated infrastructure including 158 airports.
A much more favourable comparison would be Scotland where the blood transfusion service has made a decision to have two sites for PCR testing, one in Edinburgh and the other in Glasgow. The UK has 9 testing sites and hope to have 3 PCR testing laboratories. Italy, France, Holland and Sweden all have multiple testing sites for blood donations.
The BTSB's proposal to depend solely on one testing site in Dublin does not make strategic or logical sense. I urge the Board to consider the consequences of any change in the status of the centre in Cork. - Yours, etc., Michael J Ryan,
MWHB Regional Blood Transfusion Centre, Regional General Hospital, Limerick.