Endometriosis Replacement Treatment abroad scheme is being set up to fail

• Concerns regarding endometriosis sufferers’ ability to travel abroad. 
• No reference to the hospitals and clinics that women are travelling to in Greece and Romania in the new scheme. 
• New conditions placed on post operative care are not credible. 
• HSE and the Department must create a workable surgery abroad scheme. 

Speaking in the Dáil today, Labour Health Spokesperson Marie Sherlock TD said there are very significant concerns about the new endometriosis framework launched last Saturday.

Deputy Sherlock said:

“Thousands of women with this desperately debilitating condition have been so badly failed here in Ireland over many years because of a lack of understanding and specialist services.

“Endometriosis is estimated to impact 155,000 women in Ireland. And we know that there are currently 747 women are on waiting lists for endometriosis surgery in Ireland.

“Many of the commitments in the new framework are welcome. However, we would have to wonder why the framework goes out of its way to insult endometriosis sufferers by suggesting that paracetamol may be sufficient to manage the condition.

“More crucially, endometriosis sufferers are now raising concerns with me about their ability to travel abroad.

“Unfortunately, the replacement for the travel abroad scheme appears to be set up to fail.

“Among the long list of hospitals named in the Endometriosis Surgery Abroad Interim Scheme (ENAIS), there is no reference to the actual hospital and clinics that Irish women are currently travelling to in Romania and Greece.

“Furthermore, new conditions have been inserted into the consultant referral process whereby they have to commit to taking on the post operative care here. It is simply not credible that any doctor would commit to this when they have no control or oversight over the clinical setting.

“The outcome of all of this is that women will be trapped here in Ireland, after having undergone multiple surgeries with no improved outcome and nowhere to go.

“This isn’t progress, this looks like a monumental backward step.

“We all want to see the expertise developed in Ireland and we will support all efforts to make this happen. But we must also recognise women cannot wait.

“The HSE and the Department must go back to the drawing board and create a workable ENAIS that will enable women, who need the surgery, to travel.”