This article is from page 4 of the 2007-07-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
“THERE 1s no doubt that the Hanley proposals are alive and well and that the people of Clare are its first vic- anon
Those were the words of Clare Deputy Pat Breen (FG) in the Dail on Wednesday after news broke that there would no longer be a mammog- raphy service in the county.
“IT am reliably informed that unit was fully installed and ready to be recommissioned. The problem with the service is simply that there was no consultant radiologist employed at the hospital who was willing to
interpret and report on the mammo- grams, he said
“Prior to the refurbishment, this work was carried out by the HSE in Limerick Regional Hospital, but the service was discontinued. Why was the HSE not up-front with the peo- ple of Clare before the election?” he AIS .Cor6 B
“The HSE said this decision would cause inconvenience for the women of Clare but that those in north Clare could avail of services in Galway rather than make the long journey to Limerick. Did the HSE give any consideration to the women of west Clare, who will have to travel up to
100 miles to avail of the new serv- ice?” he asked.
Clare minister for state Tony Kil- leen (FF) said he was prepared to argue the case for retention of such services at acute hospitals rather than centralising services.
“Tam concerned about the loss of breast screening services at Ennis General Hospital and the impact it will have on the level of service be- ing received by Clare patients.
‘Any evidence I have seen, on the one hand, saying the centralisation of services is best is more than coun- tered by alternate evidence suggest- ing that the provision of local serv-
ices 1s best.
“IT am not entirely convinced that this decision will benefit the people of Clare in the long term”, added Minister Killeen.
Fianna Fail TD Timmy Dooley said that the HSE needed to clearly set out how it planned to manage the trans- fer to Galway and Limerick of some 400 women each year.
“It’s now time the HSE set out clearly the measures it intends to take to upgrade procedures in Limerick and Galway, particularly in light of a recent failure in Limerick to diag- nose a previous screened patient with breast cancer.”