About 65 percent of the breast cancers detected at city-owned hospitals are not spotted until the cancer has reached an advanced stage, the report said.

Some confusion has arisen about this, especially in regard to city-owned hospitals.

City Hall officials defended the layoffs by saying city-owned hospitals are overstaffed and underused.

Because they wore what shelter employees described as medical scrubs, a bulletin was sent out at 3 p.m. yesterday to all city-owned hospitals and clinics.

But half of that would be negated by associated costs to nursing homes and city-owned hospitals.

One woman, a nurse in a city-owned hospital, comes in just to talk, Mrs. Jones said.

He has also proposed cutting thousands of administrative jobs in the schools and city-owned hospitals.

And the union representing more than 10,000 workers at city-owned hospitals has endorsed Mr. Sharpton.

A city-owned hospital was opened on Main Street in 1937, and a new, modern facility was built in 1950.

The agreement also promises no layoffs for the first three years for most municipal employees - but not for workers in city-owned hospitals.