This article is from page 12 of the 2008-05-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
THE HSE has sent a letter to all Clare GPs instructing them not to re- fer patients to hospitals in Limerick OVO E DAN se: hyms KO) mmaeyi crease loi ecconlenvament-Neecs mograms, it emerged at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council.
This emerged following a motion put forward by Councillor Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) in which she called for Health Minister, Mary Harney, to intervene personally and solve the problems of slow BreastCh- eck roll-out in the county.
“IT am very concerned about a let-
ter sent to Clare GP’s saying that women should not be sent to Galway or Limerick hospitals unless they are showing real symptoms. In effect, what this is doing is preventing Clare women from accessing early screen- ing for Cancer. It’s as simple as that,” said Cllr Taylor-Quinn.
“They are referring people to BreastCheck and we know that there is no efficient BreastCheck facility in operation in Clare. This is discrimi- nating against Clare women and | would like to call on the council to support me in calling on the minister to intervene now and get this situa-
tion fixed.
“This is an issue that has effected almost every family in Clare. If you have the €150 to spend then you can get yourself checked out, but if you don’t then it’s a different situation.”
The Mayor of Clare, Patricia Mc- Carthy (IND), told the council that she raised the issue with Minister Harney when a delegation from Clare met her last week.
“This was the one issue off the agenda that I raised with Minister Harney last week and I conveyed these issues to her and expressed the need to roll out a proper system and
education for people in Clare in rela- tion to mammography,” she said.
“I told her that confidence needs to be restored in the system and the sooner the better.”
The motion was also supported by Cllr Martin Conway (FG) who called for the HSE to be abolished.
“I completely agree with Made- line Taylor-Quinn and I question the competence of the HSE on this mat- ter,’ he said.
“I think that majority of the people of this country would like to see the HSE abolished. They have gotten too big for their boots.”