This article is from page 14 of the 2013-08-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
AS MANY as 33 babies’ blood results may have been reported incorrectly at the two maternity hospitals serving County Clare.
According to a statement issued by the HSE there are two mothers from the Maternity Hospital Limerick who may have required anti-D but did not receive it, as a result of incorrectly labelled blood testing kits.
One of the blood group test kits, Ortho BioVue System Cassette, used as part of routine hospital blood group check at the time of delivery, was reported to the HSE by Irish Medicines Board.
A number of the testing kits sup- plied worldwide had been incorrectly labelled.
These kits were used at the maternity hospitals in Limerick and Galway.
This means that there is a small chance that the results of some blood group tests may have been incorrectly reported in some cases. The manufacturer has estimated that the potential risk of a kit being labelled incorrectly is less than 1 in 11 million.
As a result of this error, it is estimated that 27 mothers at the maternity hospital Limerick and 31 at the Galway hospital got anti-D when they many not have required it.
No babies at either of the regions maternity hospitals received red blood cells when they did not need it, according to the HSE.
There may be mistakes in the blood tests however in up to 14 babies born at the Limerick hospital and 19 born in Galway.
All mothers and babies who were tested using the affected kits have been contacted by letter.
“As part of the response to this, every hospital who used these type of kits has completed an inspection of the remaining kits in stock and has removed any potentially affected batches. Each hospital has also conducted a review of the results of the testing done using these kits in each hospital,” said a HSE spokesperson.
“There is a small chance that babies who were tested using these kits may have been incorrectly blood typed,” he said.
“The risk of a baby’s blood group test result being incorrect is extremely low as the manufacturing error related to a label being incorrectly affixed to the test kit.”