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Minister for Health publishes new endometriosis framework

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill said women will be diagnosed quicker and receive more rapid treatment for endometriosis
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill said women will be diagnosed quicker and receive more rapid treatment for endometriosis

A new national endometriosis framework, which will set out a defined clinical care pathway for women has been published by the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill.

Endometriosis is a debilitating disease where tissue, similar to the lining of the womb, grows in other parts of the body.

Campaign groups say around 300,000 women in Ireland have the disease and 30,000 of these are complex cases.

HSE Chief Executive Bernard Gloster announced a new financial support system for endometriosis patients who are going abroad for treatment.

Minister Carroll McNeill said this new framework would mean that there will be a "presumptive diagnosis" approach to endometriosis.

She said this will mean that women will be diagnosed quicker and receive more rapid treatment.

The Endometriosis Association of Ireland said hundreds of women are travelling abroad for surgery due to a lack of specialist services in Ireland.

The group says that excision surgery is the internationally recognised gold standard treatment for the management of the disease long term.

However, it says there is a limited number of clinicians able to perform this surgery in Ireland.

Robin Murray, Co-Founder of Her Voice Project, a community for those suffering from the endometriosis, said that excision surgery must be made be available more widely in Ireland.

"There is girls that are still suffering and that are travelling abroad, my hope is that one day we don't have to go abroad at all and the money is funded completely into Ireland with specialists."

The minister said that today was an important first step to building the resources and capacity in the surgical teams.

She said that from 1 October an additional 100 surgeries would be carried out on top of the 1,200 surgeries already scheduled.

Asked if the doctors were able to carry out excision surgery she said that she wants to have all of the types of surgeries available here in Ireland but capacity needs to be built up first.

New financial support system for endometriosis patients

Mr Gloster announced a new financial support system for endometriosis patients who are going abroad for treatment.

He said this scheme would support endometriosis patients with travel costs, with the cost of surgery and he said patients would not have to pay up front and look for reimbursement later.

Mr Gloster said the HSE would pay the endometriosis treatment centre directly, once its on the HSE treatment centre list which he said will be available on the HSE website soon.

He said the capacity was not there within the Irish health service at the moment to provide treatment to women but he said they would work over the next two years to build that capacity.

Asked if there were enough doctors to carry out excision surgeries here, Mr Gloster said
surgeons would be supported to go abroad to do fellowships to learn in other international centres.

He said that Ireland would learn and collaborate with other endometriosis centres internationally.

Mr Gloster said the HSE would now be categorising endometriosis figures separately from the general gynaecology figures.

Minister Carroll McNeill said that women who need to go abroad for treatment would now be funded differently from how they have been funded before.

She said that they are trying to do something different to help women as they try to build capacity in the health service here.