This article is from page 2 of the 2007-10-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
that the programme for the west “is nearly there.”
The doors in the Galway and Cork Breastcheck clinic will be opening soon, she said, with a lot of the 100 jobs already filled.
Although recruitment is ongoing a unit manager and a clinic director has been appointed to Galway and Cork. There will be 50 staff per unit.
Breastcheck was not able to con- firm when the first Clare woman would be screened. The screening schedule will be announced one month in advance for the following three months.
The Breastcheck unit for the west will be based in the University Hos- pital Galway, which will accommo- date both the base for the west and the existing symptomatic breast dis- ease service in UHG.
In addition to its base in Galway, Breastcheck will have three mobile screening vehicles covering coun- ties Clare, Tipperary North, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal.
Almost 58,000 women in this re- gion, aged between 50 to 64 years, will avail of this service on a two- year cycle.
Health experts expect a 70 per cent up take in Clare, with more rural than urban women taking part in the screening.
Approximately five per cent of the women screened will require further assessment and approximately one per cent will require surgery.
Breastcheck screening commenced on a phased basis in 2000 and now covers the East, North East, South East and Midlands.
In March 2005 the Minister for Health Mary Harney gave Breastch-
eck the go ahead for a €25 million programme to extend breast screen- ing to the rest of the country.
Clare Country Councillor and council representative on the HSE forum Brian Meaney (GP) told