The Lindsay Tribunal has heard about a clash between doctors treating haemophiliacs and the Blood Transfusion Service over what products should be used. The issue came up during the evidence of Professor Ian Temperley, who is the former Director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre.
Professor Ian Temperley is a key Tribunal witness as he was the leading doctor treating haemophiliacs through the 1970s and 1980s. Today he was questioned about the procedures involved in choosing clotting agents for his patients. It is a critical issue as commercial blood products are believed to have been mostly responsible for infecting over 220 haemophiliacs with HIV and Hepatitis C.
Professor Temperley agreed that the procedures stated the doctors would agree on a product, consult with State bodies before a separate consultative committee agreed the decision. He also agreed that the actual practice was that the he consulted with the Directors of the Regional Treatment Centres and forwarded their decision to Pelican House.
Pressed by Tribunal Counsel that the treating doctors rather than the medical staff at the BTSB were making the decisions, Professor Temperley said no-one felt the need to challenge it. Professor Temperley was also questioned about the treating doctors use of commercial concentrated blood products which came on stream in the early 1970s.
The Tribunal has already heard that Dr Jack O'Riardon, National Director of the BTSB was opposed to concentrates as they were made from the blood of "skid-row types in the US". Professor Temperley said he went to London where imported concentrates were being used and was of the view that if it was good for the people in the UK it was good for Ireland too.
Professor Temperley is one of the most eagerly awaited witnesses at the Tribunal. During the Tribunal's first cycle, when victims and their relatives testified in May of this year, he was both praised and condemned. The sister of a woman who died from liver failure, as a result of being infected with Hepatitis C from a clotting agent, said that she had great faith in Professor Temperley and his staff. However Ray Kelly, whose 13-year-old son John died from HIV, described the Professor as an arrogant and dismissive man who discussed his son's condition in front of other patients. According to previous blood bank witnesses, he had a major say in what clotting agents were imported into Ireland.
