This article is from page 3 of the 2006-04-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
CLARE women will have to wait until the end of 2007, before routine breast examinations are provided in the West. Seven years after the launch of the pilot programme in the east of the country, women in Clare will finally become part of Breastcheck.
Planning permission has been granted for a unit at the University Hospital, Galway, which will accommodate both the Breastcheck base for the West and the existing symptomatic breast disease service in UHG.
In addition to its base in Galway, Breastcheck will have three mobile screening vehicles covering counties Clare, Tipperary North, Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal. Almost 58,000 women in this region, aged between 50 to 64 years, will avail of this service on a two-year cycle.
Tendering is currently underway for construction, and according to Alan Moran, Hospital Network Manager, HSE West and Northwest, the project is on target to be completed by late 2007.
In the meantime, Breastcheck are recruiting the key staff, including radiographers and radiologists, to put the screening service for the West in place, and interviews for the post of clinical director in Galway have already been held.
Breastcheck screening commenced on a phased basis in 2000 and now covers the East, North East, South East and Midlands.
In March 2005, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney, gave Breastcheck the go-ahead for a €25 million programme to extend breast screening to the rest of the country.
Mr Moran expects 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.
At last Tuesday’s meeting of the regional Health Forum West, Galway County Councillor Fidelma Healy Eames (FG) warned that some women in Galway, Clare and North Tipperary would die while waiting for the programme to be rolled out.
She asked what were the options for women in the West in the interim.
The forum was told that systematic breast screening took place where there was concern about a woman’s health, and until 2007 this was the only option open to women in Clare and throughout the West of Ireland.
Mr Moran admitted however that there was a waiting time for mammograms for those referred by a doctor, and this issue needed to be addressed by the HSE.