Transfer of cancer screening ‘for the best’

A DECISION to cease cancer screening at Ennis General Hospital and transfer it to Limerick is in the best interest of women’s healthcare, the Health Service Executive said yesterday.

From next September up to 600 women a year will have to travel from Clare to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital for mammograms.

Manager of acute hospitals in the Mid-West, John O’Brien, said the decision is based on quality issues, patient safety and risk management.

He said: “It is not a cost issue. It is about providing the safest and highest quality service in the mid-west for the women of Clare.”

However, the mid-west’s director of cancer care services complained he has been left without a wide range of resources despite a 50% increase in work load over the past two-and-a-half years.

Professor Rajnish Gupta said he issued an extensive shopping list to the HSE over two years ago for much-needed resources at the specialist cancer unit in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital and received no response.

As well as a wide range of specialist staff, he said they also needed another theatre.

At present the cancer unit at the hospital does about 2,000 mammograms a year.

Despite lack of resources, Prof Gupta welcomed the move to centralised breast screening in the Limerick.

Prof Gupta said: “The decision to discontinue mammography in Ennis is driven by the need to provide the best possible clinical practice. Quite simply the time came to bite the bullet. Centres where less than 1,000 mammograms are being done in a year do not provide the volume of work necessary for the maintenance of the required level of professional skills.”

The mammogram unit at Ennis has been closed since last October and since then 600 women from Clare have had mammograms in Galway.

These procedures will be carried out in Limerick from next September.

Consultant radiologist, Dr Paul Hession said the new service to the women in Clare would be in line with international best practice and subject to all the checks that ensure a unit fulfils it’s remit.

“A standalone unit in Ennis would not have these benefits and protections.”

The HSE said there would be flexibility which would allow women in north Clare continue to have mammograms in Galway rather than to travel much longer journeys to Limerick.

Mr Hennessy said it is planned to build a €2.6 million new dedicated Regional Specialist Breast Unit at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital.