15. Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of women who have applied for and who have travelled abroad under the endometriosis surgery abroad interim scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17509/26]

Sentiment score: 0.03

My question is regarding the endometriosis surgery abroad interim scheme. We all want women to be treated in Ireland, and I know there is progress being made towards that. However, we can all agree we are some distance away from being able to see that in Ireland, both in terms of diagnosis and care. My question concerns the number of people who have applied under the new scheme and the number who have been treated, which is probably a small number. Since the new scheme was published I have had quite a number of people approach me because they are confused.

Sentiment score: 0.24

The meeting last September was hugely important, and very welcome, but there was a large degree of alarm weeks later when the scheme was published that the names repeatedly mentioned at that meeting of the surgeons operating on women in Romania and Greece were not on the list. I have a very real concern that there is a lot of confusion about the most appropriate persons to treat complex endometriosis and that there is a large degree of deterrence, and women are not going to apply to the scheme or maybe they have engaged with the Department to ask questions about surgeons who are not on the list, and, ultimately, will be excluded from the new scheme. The reality is that we do not have numbers because they have not been properly coded in terms of who has been travelling abroad up to now and where they have been going under the treatment abroad scheme. That has been a real problem. The second key issue I have a concern with is that the surgeons on the list are very much gynaecologically-focused but endometriosis is a whole-of-body inflammatory condition. My concern is that the list is very narrow, while being very long.

Sentiment score: -0.05

I appreciate that. Hopefully, we will agree that there has been an issue in this country in that the clinicians operating here have not fully understood endometriosis, so there have been barriers to referring on. There is a challenge in this regard. NWIHP has to have the confidence to be able to put centres on a list. The reality, though, is that women have had to find centres using their own wit over the past number of years to get the appropriate care. If any lesson is to be learned from this experience, it is that we need to listen to them in terms of where they have got the appropriate care. These are the women who have gone before and are currently seeking assistance now. It is not good enough just to say that we will solely listen to the clinicians in this country, because there has been an issue that they have not been providing the services that women have needed here. There is a circle to square. It is not acceptable that the centres that have been used are excluded, and I hope they will be added.

Sentiment score: 0.22

I did not-----

Sentiment score: 0.00