Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this key issue of women's healthcare. In March 2021, I asked the Minister a parliamentary question specifically about gynaecology waiting lists. At that time, there were 30,180 women waiting on an outpatient department appointment. This figure did not include inpatients and was for outpatients alone. In his reply, the Minister referenced the impact of Covid-19. However, at that point 8,223 women had been waiting for an appointment since before Covid-19 ever came into existence.

In recent weeks, I asked the Minister the same question again. Despite his reply last year, this reply showed that the waiting lists had not just stayed static but had actually increased to 30,805 women waiting on an outpatient department. I am glad the Minister referenced women and girls in his reply, because 293 of those 30,000 are with Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin. I am urging the Minister to act now to end these long gynaecology waiting lists. They are spiralling.

I said in this House before and I will say it again: we are creating the perfect storm when it comes to women's healthcare. No woman requests a gynaecology appointment on a whim. It is done because often there are debilitating symptoms that need urgent medical care. These include abnormal bleeding, fibroids, endometriosis, cysts and prolapse. Behind each and every one of these 30,805 figures on a waiting list are real people with real stresses, a real concern and a real medical need. Delayed appointments and delayed care results in delayed diagnosis and delayed treatment. It is not acceptable and women deserve better.

How much of the €350 million in the waiting list action plan will be allocated directly to gynaecological services? Will the Minister publish a specific plan for gynaecological care to ensure each and every one of those services is sufficiently resourced to reduce these waiting times? There is not one area that does not have a significant number of women waiting on this medical care. Failing to address this problem now, which has increased in the past 12 months, continues to fail each and every one of those people on that waiting list. Women deserve better and they expect Government to deliver.

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