Month: March 2013

ENNIS General Hospital has been given the green light not just to provide the first bowel-screening programme for Clare, but for the whole mid-west region and beyond.

Hospital Manager Frank Keane, who will remain on at the hospital until the new management structure is up and running, described the accreditation of the hospital’s endoscope service by the UK-based Joint Advisory Group (JAG) as “a major feather in the cap of Ennis hospital.”

The status was not easily achieved, he reminded journalists and medical professionals at a press launch yesterday (Monday).

“The National Cancer Control Programme announced at the end of 2010 that a colonoscopy screening would be provided to an isolated age group,” he said.

At that point, centres throughout the country vied for the tender to provide screening services. Ennis General Hospital was one of 15 centres picked as a potential candidate, but it still had a lot of work to do.

Firstly, the endoscopy unit only existed on paper at the time. Once it was built, it had to receive hardsought accreditation from JAG, which is the standards body for endoscopy throughout the National Health Service. In 2011, this accreditation was deferred due to the issues relating to the length of the hospital’s waiting list and waiting lists throughout the mid west.

In September last year, issues relat ing to waiting lists had been rectified and on February 28, Ennis General Hospital got the green light.

Mr Keane said that while Ennis will provide the screening service for all of the mid-west, and areas outside the mid-west, the hospital will continue to work with the unit in Nenagh who is also seeking accreditation if and when more screening centres are opened.

Advance Nurse Practitioners are also being employed at every unit. As there are currently no such positions in the country, these specialised nurses are being employed especially.

Kathleen Stack took up the position in Ennis on Monday last, and will coordinate with patients who take up the offer of this life-saving screening.

“Ennis hospital has a bright but different future,” explained Mr Keane.

THE bowel cancer screening service at Ennis General Hospital will save lives.That is according to consultant gastroenterologist Dr Maeve Skelly who explained that Irish men have the worst survival rate from bowel cancer in Europe and the fourth worst survival rate in the world.

As many as 970 people die from bowel cancer in Ireland every year.

Now people aged between 60 and 69 years of age from the mid-west area, and slightly outside the region, will be invited to take part in a bowel screening programme at the state-of-the-art and highly accredited endoscopy unit at Ennis General Hospital.

“This is a great development for the people of the mid-west. Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in Ireland, and we have known for some time that screening for it can prevent cancers and save lives,” said Dr Skelly.

Although the cancer is slightly more common in men, both genders will be invited to take part in the screening programme.

People in their sixties will receive a letter inviting them to provide a sample of their bowel motion through a system called a FIT test. For the vast majority of people, this sample will not contain any trace of blood and they will be reassured that no more action is needed.

Dr Skelly explained that 94 per cent of people will be found to have a clear sample and assured that they are bowel cancer-free. A small percentage of people, approximately six per cent, will be found to have traces of blood (FIT positive) and they will be contacted by the nurse specialist based in Ennis hospital who will arrange for them to have a colonoscopy. This is a camera test of the bowel, which takes approximately 40 minutes and will be done in Ennis hospital as a day case.

Many of the colonoscopies will be normal. Some people, approximate- ly 50 per cent of those invited for a colonoscopy, will be found to have polyps, which are benign growths in the lining of the bowel. These will be removed at the time of colonoscopy to prevent the patient developing cancer at a later date.

Some people will be found to have cancer and they will be fast-tracked to surgery in the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick. This hospital already does more colorectal cancer surgery than any other hospital in the country so it has considerable expertise.

Dr Skelly paid tribute to all HSE staff in the mid-west for securing the screening service.

THE closure of nine garda stations has left a “vacuum” in parts of Clare, the county’s senior garda has said.

The closures earlier this year in rural parts of the county left 17 stations open in Clare.

Chief Superintendent of the Clare Garda Division, John Kerin, was speaking in Ennis on Thursday night, where he also warned that ongoing cuts to resources may soon start to impact on the ability of Clare gardaí to police charity races and events.

He said, “The closure of nine garda stations has definitely created a vacuum around the county and there is no point in saying otherwise. It is a challenge for us as a garda management.”

Mr Kerin told a meeting oragnised to discuss cuts to garda resources that the biggest loss arising from the closures was the presence of a guard in the community.

The meeting heard a total of 48 gardaí have left the Clare division since March 2010, including two superintendents and one detective inspector.

Chief Supt Kerin told the meeting that four more retirements are anticipated this year, while a number of Clare gardaí are considering taking career breaks in Australia.

A further 25 to 30 guards are also expected to retire from the Clare Garda Division by August 2014, the meeting heard.

Describing the cuts in resources as a “very, very serious situation”, Chief Supt Kerin said he may have to con- sider withdrawing the availability of gardaí for charity events.

“We will continue to do the best with the number’s we’ve got but people have got to understand, if you’re in a business or you’re a farmer whatever, if you have x-amount of resources today and they are gone from you tomorrow, you can’t deliver the same services that you used to be able to do. It’s a matter of trying to do your best with what you have. But it’s not easy”.

He added, “I’m hoping that we can still go out on Saturdays and Sundays and stop traffic for people that are doing charity work. We love getting involved. From our perspective, they are great and they build up a lot of goodwill for us with the public and a lot of our own people are involved with it. But if I’ve only got X-amount of resources on Saturday and Sunday, I can’t put two or three guards doing that (charity events). It’s going to be very difficult to say no to some of these people but that’s the way things are going to go unless things change and unless things change very quickly.”

Mr Kerin said he and other senior gardaí will meet with any communities who are concerned about crime in their area.

Mr Kerin told the meeting a substantial amount of garda resources are now being used to deal with antisocial behaviour in some parts of the county.

A NEW Garda text alert system aimed at helping to reduce the incidents of crime is set to be rolled out in Clare over the next month.

Details of the system were outlined at a meeting in Ennis on Thursday night to discuss crime and cutbacks to Garda budgets.

Chief Superintendent of the Clare Garda Division, John Kerin, told the Fianna Fáil organised meeting that the system is in the final stages of development.

“We’re very close to it. Why it’s delayed so long is that we want to make sure it’s done properly and the messages going out are controlled. We’ve had incidents up the country where individuals have put out messages that this person or this car have been around the area and people have been attacked by neighbours because they thought they were up to no good in the area. But they are actually there on genuine business,” he said.

He added, “I’ve to look at how I can do it on an 18- or 19-hour basis from a central location in Clare. We’ve nearly completed that and I’m hoping to roll out that in the next four to five weeks.”

Chief Supt Kerin stressed the importance of establishing community alert and neighbourhood watch schemes. Citing an increase in thefts on farms and the incidence of daytime burglaries, Mr Kerin also said there is an onus on people to take common sense security measures to protect their property.

He said, “The amount of houses that are broken into through unlocked doors and windows in the evening time is unbelievable. The statistics are very, very high. When I joined the Guards and up to about 15 years ago, most of the burglaries were being done in the dead of night when we were all asleep. But the re- ality now is that most burglaries are being down between 2pm and 10 or 11 o’clock at night, when people are gone to shops or up to mass or wherever. Even if you’re leaving the house for 10 or 15 minutes, lock it, talk to your neighbours and ask them to keep an eye on your house.”

The meeting heard that levels of crime have fallen by 33 per cent in Clare over the past five years. Mr Kerin said there has been a 42 per cent reduction in the level of assaults in Clare in that same period.

He added, “Despite a popular perception that burglaries are up, they are actually down by 163 in Clare over the last five years (-31 per cent). Having said that there were 364 break-ins to houses last year which is on average of one a day.”

Mr Kerin said, “Thefts, all kinds of thefts, are down by 304 crimes in that period but there was still 1,119 thefts in Clare last year. That’s an average of between three or four per day.”

BABIES and young children do not come with an instruction manual, leaving stressed-out parents often turning to the internet for help.

One Ennis GP now plans to take some of the mystery out of caring for a new baby, and dispelling many of the myths perpetrated mainly through the internet and hearsay, by holding classes to guide parents through the first year.

Dr Máire Finn, from the Ennis Family Medical Centre, also hopes the classes will provide a way for new parents to link up and get support from each other.

The GP and mother of two explained that many new parents are isolated in the community.

They no longer live near their own parents or relatives, and have no one to ask for advice about day-to-day concerns.

“I know when I came home with my first baby, I was nervous, even though I probably knew more than most parents from a medical point of view,” she said.

Like many other mothers, she did not have extended family around to allay any fears. This course, she hopes, will provide such a service for new families, many of whom are living in new neighbourhoods, away from grandparents, in-laws, family members and friends.

‘Baby’s First Year: A Parent’s Guide’ will be run by the experienced family GP in the medical centre, where she will be supported by other health professionals, including the practice nurse who can deal with questions and issues relating to vaccinations.

Dr Finn will cover a wide variety of topics during the two-day course beginning in April, including common childhood illnesses, breastand bottle-feeding issues, weaning and solid issues, and any concerns or questions the parents bring to the session.

Dr Finn will also deal with issues relating to postnatal depression.

“It is a huge thing. I find most people with postnatal depression are coming in when the baby is nine months old, rather than when the baby is very small. When the baby is small, you are wrecked.

“It is months later, when teething isn’t so bad and the baby is sleeping more, when there is no excuse, that people realise there is something not right,” she explained.

“I want to normalise things and also make parents aware of when there is something to worry about. It is normal for children to get colic, it is normal for them to cry, normal for them to spit up,” she said.

“I want to provide a good support group where parents can be honest with each other, and I will certainly be honest.”

The most important part of the class will be the questions and answers section at the end where parents are encouraged to share their concerns, their questions and even their tips.

The course costs € 100, with an information package provided to each parent.

As part of her work during the classes, Dr Finn will be dealing with often well-intentioned advice on the internet.

During this section, she will highlight good advice and warn against what can often be dangerous suggestions. Clare People readers are free to send any such advice they have come across online for Dr Finn to appraise – the good, bad and downright funny – to cgallagher@clarepeople.ie.

All replies will be published in The Clare People in the coming week. Senders’ anonymity will be respected.

AN 11-YEAR wait for dermatology services in the mid-west region is to be a thing of the past, according to the HSE, as it begins a major drive to eliminate waiting lists.

Health authorities say they hope that, by next November, no patient will be waiting longer than 12 months for an outpatient appointment.

The longest individual wait for dermatology services in the mid-west area, which includes Clare, went back to 2002, but this case was minor and has since been resolved, according to a HSE spokesperson.

Extra clinics are now being provided in Ennis, Limerick and Nenagh to eliminate the 1, 500 patients currently on the list.

A validation exercise was recently carried out to establish the real numbers of those actually requiring an appointment and it was found that just 386 patients out of the 1,767 were waiting less than one year.

Medicine Directorate manager for the Mid Western Hospitals Group, Paula Cussen Murphy said, “The people of the mid-west are very fortunate to have secured two additional consultant dermatologists in the last while. The dermatology service is now being developed to provide a range of services across the region.”

Consultant dermatologist, Dr Bart Ramsey said, “Real progress has and is being made. There is a need to expand the dermatology nursing services to enable more patients to be seen and treated.

“An expanded dedicated space for dermatology is in building development. This will give us much needed physical space to see and treat more patients,” he added.

JOHN O’DWYER’S Builders Providers and DIY Store in Kilrush is to close its doors at the end of the month with the loss of seven of the eight jobs.

Owner, John O’Dwyer described as “rotten” the realisation that he had to close the store on the Cooraclare Road, six months after the Ennis store ceased trading.

He said that some of the staff were with him for more than 10 years and had worked at the Quilty store, making the decision all the more difficult.

The hardware store owner did not attribute the reason for the drop in business, which led to the store’s closures, solely to the drop in the building sector.

“The general spend of our customers is down, even in paint and white goods. So much has gone out of people’s household budgets, and the weekend trade which was once very busy has been down significantly,” he said.

“The weekend trade has been affected. We were a good employer one time. Three years ago, we had 52 staff. At the end of March, we will have just 18 staff members left,” he said.

Mr O’Dwyer said that all vouchers and guarantees from the Kilrush store will be honoured at the Miltown Malbay store and customers should not be concerned.

He added the Miltown Malbay store will continue to trade, looking after customers not only in that area but also customers from Kilrush and Ennis.

“When we closed Ennis, we managed to keep a lot of our customer base, and delivered directly to them. We hope to keep our Kilrush base by providing the same value delivery service,” he said.

Optimistic about the future, Mr O’Dwyer said that the company owns both buildings in Ennis and Kilrush, “so if things pick up, we look forward to opening them again.”

The seven staff at the Kilrush store were given a month’s notice that the shop is to close on March 30.

CALLS for Ennis Town Council not to accept representations from Clare TDs and engage in a form of “blue flu” strike action have been rejected by councillors.

The proposal was tabled by Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) at the March meeting of Ennis Town Council.

In the motion, Cllr Meaney stated, “Having regards to the proposed abolition of town councils and the refusal of Clare TDs to, in any way, contribute to the costs of running of Ennis Town Councils services despite their ongoing representations to avail of these services. Taking account that they have no mandate to town councils and should concentrate on national matters. I humbly request that the council no longer assist the impression hawked by our Oireachtas members that they have a function in local authority matters. I request that this council cease to accept representations from our Oireachtas members and request them to direct such representations to the elected members of Ennis Town Council.”

Explaining his reason for submitting the motion, Cllr Meaney referred to a letter sent by the Impact trade union to members of the then government parties, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, in March 2010.

The letter stated that in response to cuts in public service salaries, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) had requested that that all public service unions commence a work to rule as part of a campaign to reverse the cuts.

Andy Pike, Impact Assistant General Secretary, stated that the campaign included a bar on processing all political representations from government TDs, senators and coun- cillors.

Cllr Meaney said the letter had left a “sour taste” in his mouth.

He told the meeting that if a trade union could stop councillors making representations, then the council could do the same to TDs.

Cllr Meaney said TDs had treated the council chamber with “disdain”.

He said the motion would illustrate the unhappiness with the decision to abolish town councils if members had the “nerve and steel” to pass it.

Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) said the council could not direct staff not to deal with TDs representations.

Cllr Brennan did however express annoyance that the outcome of some private council meetings on housing were disclosed to members of the public.

The council did pass a proposal from Cllr Brennan that correspondence for the mayor and councillors be sent only to those recipients and not TDs.

Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said he could not support Cllr Meaney’s motion.

He added, “I think we should be working with our Oireachtas members instead of throwing dirt at each other.”

Cllr Paul O’Shea (Ind) criticised Cllr Meaney’s motion, describing as “bordering on the ridiculous”.

Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) expressed support for Cllr Meaney, saying it was one of the “better motions” to come before the council.

He said by abolishing local authorities, the Government are “taking the voice away from the people”.

In his reply, town clerk Leonard Cleary stated, “Ennis Town Council is obliged to have regard to the 2001 Local Government Act and the regulations commenced subsequently. In this regard the council is required to brief Oireachtas members on council services. The council is also required to engage with all other arms of the State including the Oireachtas.”

Cllr Meaney’s motion was not passed. A second proposal, calling for the council to engage in a “blue flu” style strike action in relation to TDs representations, was not supported.

A 36 PER cent increase in the numbers of houses sold in Clare last year may indicate that the property market is stabilising slightly, but one established auctioneer believes that growth in sales will drop again this year.

Diarmuid McMahon of Sherry FitzGerald Ennis believes that there was a surge in sales last year for a number of reasons, including tax relief on mortgages, but a lack of saleable property now on the market means the number of sales are likely to dip again this year.

“Availability is down on last year,” said the auctioneer.

According to the property price register, 565 properties were sold in Clare in 2012, compared to 414 in 2011.

Those buying were mainly first time buyers taking advantage of mortgage tax relief, and people with cash buying into the market at very low prices and prepared to keep the property for more than a decade.

“Prices have dropped an average of 50 per cent and often 60 per cent. Many places in Clare are selling for less than the construction cost. This cannot be sustained in the long term,” said Mr McMahon.

He said that there is currently development land in the Ennis area for sale for € 15,000 an acre with phase one zone development. This land would previously have sold for half a million euro an acre.

And while a lot of property was sold last year, the majority of it was stock that had been with estate agents for a long time.

“A lot of it was mopped up last year,” said Mr McMahon.

Much of the remaining property will remain on the books however as vendors are not prepared to drop prices any further, hoping that next year will not be worse, even if it is not better, explained the Ennis estate agent.

There is also very few new properties coming on to the market, he added.

The majority of those looking for a new home are first time buyers or young families.

However a lot of the property available is not necessarily suitable to their needs.

FOUR decades of work in the local government sector was recognised last evening (Monday) when a civic reception was awarded to Joe Boland. Mr Boland worked for more than 40 years in the sector, including a 23-year term as Clare County and Ennis Town Manager.

Ennis Town Council hosted the event in recognition of what it described as the “significant contribution Joe Boland made to County Clare and especially to the development of Ennis between 1960 and 1983”.

Mr Boland was lauded for his direct role in spearheading the development of a strategic plan for industrial and residential development in the town, the delivery of major drainage and water supply schemes, the provision of the De Valera Library, and the implementation of a major and continuous Housing Programme which led to the replacement of derelict sites with open spaces and carparks in the town centre.

Addressing last evening’s Civic Reception, Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said, “During his term as County and Town Manager, the town of Ennis experienced a period of enormous change.

It was under Joe’s stewardship that every opportunity was grasped to ensure that Ennis would be able to be- come what it is today, one of the largest towns in the region with a proud economic, social, cultural and political history which is a legacy that we must protect.

“While the extension of the Ennis Urban Boundary took place in 1989, Joe also played an important role, prior to retirement, in preparing the ground for its successful conclusion. The extension of the Boundary for Ennis was significant in terms of income for the town. We must continue to build on this achievement so as to ensure that the town of Ennis remains the capital of County Clare in terms of tourism, economic development, community engagement and active citizenship.”

During his time as County and Town Manager, Mr Boland has also held the position of Chairman of Lisdoonvarna Fáilte Ltd from 1967 to 1983, Director of Syntex Ireland (Roche Ireland), Trustee of Clare Social Service Council (now known as Clarecare) from 1968 to 1983, Director of Craggaunowen Project from 1972 to 1984, and Director of Rent an Irish Cottage Ltd from 1976 to 1978.