EVIDENCE from a BTSB employee, that she had contacted a Limerick nursing home about the withdrawal of anti D stock in February 1994, has turned out to being accurate.
Ms Pauline Coakley told the tribunal she had rung the Marian nursing home on February 18th that year, to tell them the current anti D stock should be withdrawn. However, two units of anti D were administered at the home during March 1994.
In her evidence to the tribunal, Ms Anne Kelleher, who ran the home, said she had received no such call, and had presumed from the publicity surrounding the anti D crisis that it referred only to the 1977 period.
In a statement to the tribunal yesterday, Ms Coakley said she had asked Telecom Eireann to", check her phone calls for the period, and that these had established the call she made to the Marian nursing home was in fact on April 11th, 1994.
The two units of anti D used at the nursing home were among nine issued after the BTSB ordered withdrawal of the product. Eight of the women concerned have been traced and all have tested negative.
The current chief executive at, the BTSB, Mr Liam Dunbar, told the tribunal yesterday that when he took up the post in April 1995 staff morale at Pelican House was "extremely low". This resulted as much from public hostility, "bad comments made by neighbours", as the crisis itself.
As a way of trying to get over this he had attempted to give a "national connotation" to the service as part of a development plan. He also said the rate of recruitment of new donors had not increased to compensate for the increased number of "deferrals" due to more stringent standards. Recent difficulties had been overcome due to 950 donations on Monday and 1,000 on Tuesday.
The normal intake was 500/600 a day. He hoped this might not mean a drop off in donations in coming weeks.
Mr James Nugent, counsel for the tribunal, said this was an opportunity for his (legal) colleagues to make donations. However, he wondered how many of them would get past the questionnaire.
