It took the Department of Health three years to provide funding for extra social workers to counsel haemophiliacs testing HIV-positive at St James's Hospital, Dublin, in the 1980s, the Lindsay tribunal heard yesterday.
The hospital wrote many times to the Department between 1985 and 1988 seeking funding for extra staff, but it was not until July 1988 that funding was sanctioned.
The then Minister for Health, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, wrote to the hospital CEO, Mr Liam Dunbar, stating he had arranged to provide a grant of £15,000 from national lottery proceeds.
It took a further six months for the cheque to be handed over, Ms Maeve Foreman, a senior medical social worker at St James's, said. She said it allowed for the recruitment of two part-time social workers on six-month contracts.
Haemophiliacs had been testing HIV-positive since 1985 as a result of receiving contaminated blood products and at that point only half of those who were positive had been counselled, she said.
"They arguably had less need of the service at that stage than they would have in 1985 when they were diagnosed," she added.
Ms Foreman said the counselling service at the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre in St James's when patients first tested HIV-positive was inadequate.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Patrick McCann, opened numerous items of correspondence which had taken place between St James's and the Department between July 1985 and the granting of the funding. In one letter in April 1986 Mr Dunbar said it was imperative that funding was provided. No reply was received to this or several other letters.
Counsel noted that the former director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, Prof Ian Temperley, had also brought the "paucity" of the service to the attention of hospital management many times, as had the social work department.
Ms Foreman said the situation worsened before the Department funding arrived. Because of cutbacks, four social worker posts which had fallen vacant by 1987 could not be filled.
The tribunal has adjourned to Wednesday, when Ms Foreman will continue her evidence.