This article is from page 20 of the 2008-03-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
WOMEN from Clare and the mid- west will not be able to avail of a screening mammography — service until Breastcheck is rolled out in the county. According to Cllr Deirdre Culligan (Ind), that could take an- other year or three, leading the Kil- rush Town Councillor to call for the abolition of the HSE.
Cllr Culligan was speaking on a motion by Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF) who proposed that the council call on the Minister for Health and the HSE to deliver a modern and effec- tive health service to peripheral ar- eas like west Clare.
Cllr Culligan read a statement from the radiology department of the HSE west in the Mid Western Regional Hospital Limerick.
“Limerick Regional Hospital was recently designated as one of the eight regional symptomatic breast units. Following the closure of lo- cal units – Ennis and Barrington’s – there has been a marked increase in the number of imaging requests for symptomatic patients,” it said.
“Consequent to a meeting of the eight breast units with Professor Tom Keane, Director of the National Cancer Control Programme, the des- ignated symptomatic units will no longer provide screening mammog-
raphy. This is to ensure rapid access to imaging for symptomatic patients as outlined in the O’ Higgins report.
“Screening mammography will now fall under the auspices of Breast- check, the National Screening Pro- gramme, with all women between 50 to 65 years old in this region being invited to attend for mammography over the next two years.”
Cllr Culligan said, “The HSE are missing the point by closing Ennis and Barrington’s. They are crowd- ing Limerick and therefore it can no longer be a centre of excellence.”
Mayor of Kilrush Tom Clyne (Ind) said that the HSE was “answerable to no one”.
Cllr Jack Fennell (Ind) believed it was time to get rid of all the execu- tives and bring back the matrons.
“TU fully support getting rid of the HSE on grounds that they are a dis- aster since the day it was formed,” said the veteran councillor.
Cllr Marian McMahon Jones was equally critical of the health serv- ices, believing the Government will continue to run down the services until it no longer works and the only option is a private health service.
The councillors agreed to write to the HSE, raising their concern about the crisis in breast cancer detection and to ask it to outline its plans for remote areas such as west Clare.