Bookmarkers beware: Bookmarks to pages other than the home page may not work after we change servers in April Editor's Choice | This Week in BMJ | Press releases BMJ No 7125 Volume 316 News Saturday 10 January 1998 Doctors to face disciplinary action over Irish hepatitis C scandal The Irish Medical Council's fitness to practice committee is to begin a disciplinary examination of the role of several doctors criticised by an official Tribunal of Inquiry into the country's hepatitis C scandal. More than 1,000 mothers were infected through contaminated anti-D immunoglobulin in the mid-1970s. The tribunal, which reported last March, put responsibility for the contamination squarely on the senior medical staff of the Blood Transfusion Service Board. The tribunal specifically named the then director of the board, Dr Jack O'Riordan, his successor Dr Terry Walsh, and a part time consultant, Dr James Kirrane.   Hundreds of patients received contaminated blood products Photo: JOHN COLE/IMPACT Dr Kirrane has since launched a High Court challenge to the tribunal's findings, which he claims impugned his reputation. The medical council's inquiry is separate from a police investigation instituted after the director of public prosecutions declined to initiate criminal charges against anyone after publication of the tribunal report. Significantly, the government indicated last month that it is to change Irish criminal law, abolishing the centuries old common law "year and a day" rule. Under the rule, for the purposes of offences involving death, an act was conclusively presumed not to have caused a person's demise if more than a year and a day had elapsed before the individual died. The change will also give additional force to new laws on syringe attacks recently introduced by the government and be applicable to a range of fatal infections with long incubation periods. Although the tribunal dealt only with cases of contaminated anti-D immunoglobulin, several hundred other patients were infected with hepatitis C after receiving contaminated blood products and transfusions. The Irish government set up a compensation tribunal for these patients and, late last year, agreed to pay a 20% premium over any agreed compensation in lieu of aggravated damages. Settlements to date, which have averaged £Ir330,000 (£380,000; $608,000), amounted to a total last year of almost £Ir42m. The eventual total is expected to be over £Ir300m. The largest single award, made just before Christmas, has been to a man with haemophilia; he received £Ir770,000 plus 20% from the reparation fund, bringing his total compensation to £Ir924,000. Doug Payne Dublin Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline