The Well Woman centre is to close its Leeson Street branch in Dublin. The closure of the organisation's flagship branch, according to chief executive Ms Ann Broekhoven, is due to "significant financial losses".
Three full-time staff and a number of part-time employees are to be laid off when the centre, which employs 35 people, closes on March 6th. The centre provided family-planning services, health checks, smear tests, educations services and counselling.
"We are in a competitive market now. In years gone by no doctor wanted to touch the services we provided but that has changed," Ms Broekhoven said. The Well Woman centres treat up to 50,000 patients a year.
Services at the centre will be relocated to the centres at Pembroke Road and Lower Liffey Street in Dublin. However, the Well Woman's education department and helpline service, which receives up to 500 calls a month, are to be suspended immediately.
Ms Broekhoven said the major problem that had put it into financial difficulties was the closure of the Well Woman centre in Athlone, Co Westmeath, at a loss of £70,000. Ms Broekhoven has claimed that doctors in the town were "making it impossible for the centre to recruit doctors to operate the clinic". The centre opened in April 1996 as a joint initiative with the Midland Health Board.
She greatly regretted the closure of the helpline, which had been staffed by medical personnel able to answer queries on the spot. She urged the Minister for Health to allocate funding towards it. The Well Woman also has centres in Dublin in the Northside Shopping Centre, Coolock, and at 78-79 Lower George's Street, Dun Laoghaire.