The Irish Blood Transfusion Service has agreed to introduce changes to its management structures following a report on inter-staff tensions by independent consultants.
The report, carried out by the industrial relations specialist, Mr Phil Flynn, investigated weaknesses in management and reporting structures which were seen to have contributed to the long-running dispute between the service's Dublin and Cork centres. It was presented to a special meeting of the agency's board on Saturday.
An IBTS spokeswoman said it was not releasing details of the report until it had been circulated to staff this week. She said, however, that the IBTS fully accepted its recommendations and would implement them as soon as possible.
It is understood the report is critical of both the Dublin and Cork centres for their handling of the board's contentious decision to centralise blood-testing in the capital.
Tension between the centres dates back to the discovery at the Cork unit of the hepatitis C scandal in 1994, which led to the establishment of the Finlay tribunal.
The director of the Cork centre, Dr Joan Power, who was involved in uncovering the scandal, was earlier this year removed from a range of key bodies and committees. Staff expressed fears that this was part of an attempt to downgrade the Cork unit.
For his report, Mr Flynn interviewed senior staff in Dublin and Cork and examined organisational changes introduced by the IBTS under its three-year development plan. Among the recent developments was the setting up last month of a centralised reporting mechanism for scientific and laboratory staff.
A statement from the IBTS at the weekend said the recommendations, when implemented, would move the agency "towards a harmonious and participative culture, coping with the rapidly changing world of transfusion medicine."
In a separate effort to resolve the dispute between the centres, the IBTS invited the Southern Health Board to nominate an international blood transfusion expert to a three-member independent panel to investigate the merits of centralised testing. The health board, however, has yet to make a nomination, according to the IBTS.
