'Unacceptable' - Nearly 800 women on waiting list for endometriosis surgery in Ireland

747 woman are on waiting lists for endometriosis surgery in Ireland including 175 women who have been waiting between three and six months, according to new figures.

The Endometriosis Association of Ireland have said hundreds of women have had to travel abroad for surgery due to the overwhelming lack of services in Ireland.

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Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has said women suffering with endometriosis, a debilitating disease that affects the organs and causes chronic pain, have been failed by lack of understanding in Ireland.

Speaking on RTÉ News, Ms Carroll MacNeill said endometriosis has been critically underfunded and under-researched and that she had tried to obtain figures from the HSE regarding how many women with the condition went abroad for surgery in the last year but she was unable to do so, calling it "disappointing and unacceptable".

The HSE have said that 226 women travelled abroad for gynaecology procedures in the last year but that it does not record figures for endometriosis specifically.

"I have said that I need to know how many have gone," Ms Carroll MacNeill said, "I need to know how many are planning to go so that we can try to find better ways to support them. I need to know this, and it is not okay to just lump this into gynaecology.

"Generally, if you are at a point if you are looking to travel for surgery whether it's to London, Greece, to Romania - people have gone to the United States - it has gotten through the body.

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"These are women with whole systems, from the shoulders to the pelvis and beyond, that have been impacted in this way and it's literally parts of their organs sticking together in different ways, can you imagine the pain.

"The cases range from very moderate cases, which can be managed in the community, managed with GP care, that is through to really very sever cases that have an absolutely debilitating impact on a woman," she added.

A new national endometriosis framework was announced by previous government over two years ago but shows no sign of being published.

The framework was set to create to a defined clinical care pathway identifying care for women that would be delivered at primary care centres and local hospitals.

Asked about the reason for the delay, the Ms Carroll MacNeill said she is agreeing the pathways with GPs across Ireland who will need to play a bigger role before adding that the framework is on her desk and she expects it to be published "within the next couple of weeks".