Gynecology waiting lists mean the state is once again failing women

It’s the second time I’ve tested positive for HPV on the CervicalCheck screening program in the last 12 months and my GP has advised him to check some cells further.

Of course, if you get a letter from CervicalCheck that additional testing needs to be done, you’d panic (constant Googling didn’t help), but I’ve since learned that such referrals are fairly common.

I was looking forward to getting the appointment out of the way to put my mind at ease — until this week I got a letter in the mail advising there was a four-month wait.

The typed correspondence initially contained a six, which was crossed out and replaced by a handwritten four. Small graces and such.

Overcast for a long time HSE Waiting lists as a journalist shouldn’t have surprised me at all. In a weird way, I was grateful that it was only four months for a run-of-the-mill procedure. I interviewed parents of children who have been on hospital lists for nearly three years while awaiting urgent treatment for various medical conditions.

I shared a copy of my letter on Twitter and found that there are many women in a similar position, some saying they had waited up to a year for an appointment.

An HSE spokesman said the May 2021 and December 2021 cyberattacks on Coombe Hospital had impacted capacity in colposcopy units, but added that those seen as urgent referrals are being reviewed within two weeks will.

Target times set by the HSE state that those classified as low must be seen within eight weeks of referral, while women classified as high must be seen within four weeks.

Figures provided to Sinn Féin TD Johnny Mythen show that between December 2021 and the end of January 2022, the average waiting time for all gynecology appointments increased in most Irish hospitals.

On January 27, 30,805 women were waiting for appointments. Tallaght University Hospital has an average waiting time of 652 days (21 months), Ennis Hospital 506 days (16 months) and Wexford General Hospital – where I’m supposed to go – 172 days (five months).

In an interview with South East Radio, Eleanor Carpenter, director of care at Wexford Hospital, said the waiting list was “complex” but assured women significant resources were being added to address the problem.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the HSE cyber attack have been cited countless times as reasons for long delays, but long before that the healthcare system was forcing people to wait. And not just for gynecological examinations.

In 2019, I interviewed mum-of-three Angela Dobbs, from Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, who received a letter for a hospital appointment 10 months after discovering a lump on her breast.

Ms Dobbs had just finished chemotherapy when she received a letter from Waterford University Hospital asking if she still had to attend her first outpatient consultation. She told me that if she hadn’t sought private treatment, she probably would have died. Her story is another one of women abandoned by the state.

The Irish healthcare system has been rocked by scandals in recent years, the most notorious being the CervicalCheck controversy. Despite the controversy, we know that having swabs is still extremely important.

Most people will test positive for HPV at some point in their lives, and for the majority of people it will clear up on its own, but some forms need more treatment and lead to cancer.

Each year, over 6,500 women require hospital treatment for pre-cervical cancer.

We’re told by experts that screening and early intervention are vital, so letters about four-month waits are scary.

It’s just not good enough.