Councillor angered by original move to limit postmastectomy products

A SLIGO councillor said she was “very angry” when she tabled a motion blasting a decision by the HSE to limit the provision of post-mastectomy products.

Cllr Roslaeen O’Grady (FF) said she could not believe it when she heard that the HSE had decided to limit by 50% the provision of post-mastectomy products which include bras, prosthesis, and post-mastectomy swimwear as cost saving exercise.

“I was very angry when I put in the motion. I thought it was an extremely mean cut to try to make,” she said this week.

The decision was subsequently rescinded and the Sligo councillor, a former nurse, said she welcomed that move by Minister Simon Donnelly to scrap the cost cutting exercise.

However, she said she struggled to understand who in the HSE made the original move to cut the allocation in the first place.

“I’d love to meet the gentleman or woman who decided this would help to balance the books.

“How mean can you be to cut the allowance of €120 per year down to €60 for someone post-mastectomy?

“As a former nurse, I nursed women post-mastectomy. It is not easy, it is traumatic.

“Those people need every support and care given to them; they don’t need any of this trauma.

“I am delighted that there was a change made on this, but I want a letter sent to the minister for health thanking him. He said he wasn’t aware of this move by the HSE and I thank him for getting it rescinded.

“We as a Council will write the CHO1 for this area expressing our dismay that anybody in health services would even think, would even dream of doing what they were proposing to do.

“In 2017 this was also brought to the table, but Minister Simon Harris rescinded it as well. I hope this is the end of it and that we continue to support all these people who are on a difficult pathway, she said when she spoke at Monday’s meeting of Sligo County Council on the issue.

“The Minister has intervened and the decision to remove financial supports across the country has been rescinded. The scheme is back to where it was with the same supports available to women, she said.

“Those bras post-mastectomy are a medical device.

“Not alone do they help the woman in her recovery, both physically and mentally, they also support women with underarm support that you wouldn’t get in an ordinary bra for the prevention of lymphedema, for swimming also very important to help lymphedema and again to get a swimsuit and a prosthesis is very important,” she said.

Her motion received widespread support from fellow councillors.