The BTSB issued a recall notice withdrawing an infectious blood product from hospitals five months after it agreed to do so with the Department of Health, the tribunal heard yesterday.
The BTSB's former chief technical officer, Mr John Cann, said he recalled "quite definitely" that the board agreed that all non-heat-treated Factor 9 be "withdrawn and taken back" at a meeting with the Department on January 21st, 1986.
It was not until June 1986, however, that the board wrote to hospitals telling them to use only heat-treated Factor 9 and to return untreated material.
Asked if it was his understanding that the notice should have been issued months earlier, Mr Cann said he understood a recall notice had been issued in January 1986 which "was supposed to have covered" the recall of Factor 9.
The notice in question, written by Dr Terry Walsh, a senior consultant to the board, informed hospitals that heat-treated commercial Factor 9 was available and that it was hoped heat-treated BTSB Factor 9 would shortly be available.
The notice, however, did not stipulate that untreated material should have been returned to Pelican House.
The tribunal has heard that untreated BTSB Factor 9 infected seven haemophiliacs with HIV, five of whom have since died.
On his first day in the witness box, Mr Cann also gave evidence which suggested that the BTSB agreed to heat-treat its products for haemophiliacs to guard against HIV infection only after the intervention of a treating doctor.
An entry in Mr Cann's personal diary recorded a decision by the board on August 14th, 1985, to heat-treat Factor 9. This was the day after Dr Helena Daly, a locum doctor at the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, met senior BTSB officials Dr Jack O'Riordan and Mr Sean Hanratty at Pelican House to impress on them the need for heat-treatment.
At an earlier sitting, Dr Daly informed the tribunal that the two officials "quickly told me it was not possible".
However, Mr Cann said he understood from the documentation that a decision was made, presumably by Dr O'Riordan, to begin heat-treating products. Asked what the rationale was behind the decision, Mr Cann said the BTSB had clearly "realised the necessity" by then of heat-treatment and this was possibly due to "pressure" from heamophilia treatment directors.
Mr Cann was also questioned about the state of knowledge within the board about AIDS and hepatitis C. By 1977, he said, the board was aware that hepatitis C was a "major problem" in the US. It was not, however, an "immediate problem" to the board.
