IHS counsel 'made outlandish' claims

The Irish Haemophilia Society's legal counsel was accused yesterday of making "outlandish" and "unfounded" allegations against a former senior consultant with the Blood Transfusion Service Board.

In a closing statement on behalf of Dr Terry Walsh, a former BTSB consultant haematologist, Mr Charles Meenan SC said the IHS's final submission to the tribunal was "replete" with allegations against his client. Many of them were based on no evidence, he said, and others were not put to Dr Walsh in cross-examination.

Perhaps the most outlandish allegation, he said, related to Dr Walsh's decision to issue a letter to hospitals in June 1986 recalling non-heat-treated BTSB factor 9.

To accuse Dr Walsh of usurping the functions of the then chief medical consultant, Dr Vincent Barry, by issuing the notice was "perverse". Had he left the matter to Dr Barry, Dr Walsh would be subject to a "tidal wave" of criticism from the IHS, said Mr Meenan.

He rejected other allegations, including the claim that Dr Walsh was aware in January 1986 of HIV infections caused by BTSB factor 9, and the claim that Dr Walsh was "directing medical policy" between January 1986 and December 1987 while Dr Barry was in charge. Mr Meenan said Dr Barry's appointment as chief medical consultant occurred in "bizarre" circumstances and it was clear that during his tenure, he was "not fully filling the role".

He added there was a danger in calling upon Dr Walsh, who was "a relatively young man and had a good recollection of events", to explain matters for which other people, who were either dead or advanced in years and whose memories had dimmed, were responsible.

Later, Mr Padraig Dwyer, counsel for Dr Ann Murphy, a paediatrician at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, defended her decision not to inform the BTSB or Prof Ian Temperley, former medical director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, of a HIV-positive test result in one of her patients in December 1985.

Mr Dwyer noted Dr Murphy told the boy's GP about the infection and relied on his mother to inform Prof Temperley, whom the boy visited two months later. Her actions should be considered against a background of her "complete reliance" on the BTSB and NDAB for expertise.

Lawyers for St James's Hospital, where the haemophilia treatment centre was based, and the National Children's Hospital also made closing submissions.

Ms Deirdre Murphy SC, for St James's, said it emerged that the hospital provided a "humane service" in very difficult circumstances. It did not shirk its responsibility to care for people infected with HIV and, indeed, for a period in the 1980s, was one of only two hospitals which was willing to treat them.

She noted much had been made of the lack of psycho-social counselling services during the AIDS crisis, but there was not just "no demand" for such services, there was "resistance". She submitted criticism levelled by the IHS in this respect was misplaced.