Medical & Scientific Director

About Us

Background Information on the IBTS

The IBTS is the national organisation responsible for collecting, processing, testing and distributing blood and blood products in Ireland. It relies completely on the generosity of voluntary non-remunerated donors to provide sufficient donations to ensure a consistent supply of blood and blood components to patients. It is a critical part of modern health care and provides blood, blood components and blood products for patients. It is funded through the charging of hospitals for its products and services at a price agreed with the Department of Health.

As a Non–Commercial State Agency its governance arrangements are set out in the revised Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies 2016. The responsibility for governance of the IBTS rests with the Board which is appointed by the Minister for Health and comprises twelve members. To assist the Board in carrying out its functions there are a number of Sub-Committees which deal with specific aspects of the business of the organisation, namely, Medical & Scientific Advisory Committee, Finance Committee, Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee, Performance Development Committee and Research & Development Committee. There is a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities between the Board and the Executive.

Statutory Instrument 78 of 1965 sets out the functions of the IBTS as follows:

• (a) to take over the property (including choses-in-action), assets, rights and liabilities of the Company:
• (b) to organise and administer a blood transfusion service (hereinafter referred to as “the Service”) including the processing or supply of blood derivatives or other blood products and also including blood group and other tests in relation to specimens of blood received by the Board;
• (c) to make available, blood and blood products;
• (d) to make available equipment or re-agents suitable for use in relation to the service;
• (e) to make such charges (if any) as the Board thinks fit, for the services referred to at (b), (c) and (d) above and, where the Minister gives any direction in relation to such charges, to comply with such direction;
• (f) to furnish advice, information and assistance in relation to any aspect of the service to the Minister, any health authority or any hospital authority;
• (g) to make any necessary provision for publicity in relation to the service;
• (h) to organise, provide, assist or encourage research and the training and teaching of persons in matters relating to blood transfusion and the preparation of blood products and
• (i) to cooperate with other bodies with analogous scientific functions.

These functions were amended in 1988, 2000 and 2003, with the addition of functions as follows:

• a) To organise and administer an eye banking service.
• b) To organise and administer a service for obtaining and assessing reports of unexpected or undesirable effects of transfusion of blood or blood components made available by the Board including the furnishing to the Health Products Regulatory Authority of reports of any unexpected or undesirable effects of any transfusion of such blood or blood components.

The organisation of work is carried out through a number of functions organised on a national basis, i.e. Operations, Medical, Quality and Compliance, Human Resources, IT and Finance. The primary decision making body is the Executive Management Team, which has a devolved budgetary system.

IBTS headquarters is located in Dublin on the site of St James’ Hospital. The headquarters is the primary testing and processing centre. There are collection teams in Dublin, Cork, Carlow, Limerick, Ardee and Tuam with three fixed donation clinics, two in Dublin and one in Cork.

The following operations and services are provided from the Dublin site:

1. Donor Services & Collections
2. Production and Hospital Services
3. Medical and Medical & Scientific Administration
4. Quality Assurance, Quality Control & regulatory compliance
5. Corporate, IT, HR & Finance support services
6. Testing & Processing Laboratories
7. Fixed centre Apheresis clinic & Mobile collection team

The current centre in Cork is located on the site of St Finbarr’s Hospital. Services are currently split across three units, each of which is now past its expected lifespan. The following operations are currently provided from the site:

1. Donor Services
2. Quality Assurance, Quality Control & regulatory compliance
3. Medical, Medical Administration & Therapeutic Apheresis Service.
4. IT and Finance support services
5. Stock holding,  production & Diagnostics Laboratory
6. Fixed centre hybrid clinic & Mobile collection team

The IBTS has approximately 600 employees across a number of functions as follows:

For more information on IBTS please visit www.giveblood.ie