Ms Amanda Jackson:

I tried to access the treatment abroad scheme. I had been with my urologist for three years and found out through a friend about mesh injury. I applied. My consultant had come to the end of his treatment plan and the only thing left was a hospital admission and IV treatment. He said he would support me. He wrote a letter and signed the form. He would not write a letter addressed to my consultant initially and then he implied in it that I had self-referred. The treatment abroad scheme said that treatment was not available because the patient had self-referred. Subsequently, I was told by the Ombudsman, who took up the case after I was referred, that my consultant should not have said there was no doctor in Ireland available to do it. The consultant is an assistant professor and I had been with him for three years. It was just very difficult. The Ombudsman caseworker told me she was not getting answers from the HSE when she asked if a similar treatment was available here in Ireland. She did not get an answer back. It seems the Ombudsman does not have the authority to get the information and to look for the evidence as a solicitor would. Therefore they have no clout to be able to make a judgement. Furthermore, they are not medically trained to understand, so the HSE can say what it likes.