A Co Fermanagh woman has spoken of her frustration at gynaecology services in the Western Health & Social Care Trust after waiting weeks on calls back from local services.
Caroline Rice, 48, from Lisnaskea has endometriosis and has previously had a coil inserted to treat the condition.
The self-employed childminder says she needs another coil inserted as it is the only treatment which has worked for her so far.
She says she has been unable to get a consultation with her gynaecologist in Altnagelvin or her local Family Planning Service in Enniskillen.
“I have endometriosis, and I have had a coil put in before and I went back to the GP and asked to be referred again to get another one inserted,” Caroline told MyFermanagh.
“I’ve approached my own gynaecologist in Derry, I rang them a few weeks ago and never got a reply.
“I rang my local Family Planning Service in Enniskillen to be told that there was a waiting list to speak to the nurse, before the nurse can put you on the waiting list to get the coil.
“But they couldn’t tell me how long the waiting lists are, and that was over four weeks ago and I’m still waiting on that call back.
“My GP has referred me to our local health centre in Lisnaskea, and I’m certainly not holding out hope for it.
“Because of my condition, the longer it’s left, the worse it could potentially be and the coil seems to be the only thing that will help alleviate a lot of the pain and the problems.”
The Lisnaskea woman says she has been undergoing treatment for the condition for years, but access to gynae services has been limited since the onset of the pandemic.
“I’ve been having gynae treatment for years for endometriosis and it’s a life long condition.
“The coil is the only thing that has been working for me, and I’ve been without it now for a few months and it’s got to the stage where I can’t take it any more.
“I haven’t seen my gynae consultant from six months before the pandemic. I had a phone consultation in April just after the pandemic hit.
“Are we expected to constantly harass them? Has it got to the stage where we have to harass our medical services to get the treatment that we need?
“Have we got to the stage where it’s he who fights the most gets the service? That’s what it feels like to me.
“There is no specialist that deals with this in SWAH in Enniskillen so we are sent elsewhere.
“The consultant I see would have held clinics in Strabane once a month, so they would have called me down to Strabane.
“It would be an hour to an hour and a half drive spending on traffic for a five minute appointment and then the same home but that’s a full day to me as a self-employed childminder.
“I have no qualms if I have to travel to see a specialist, as long as when I go to see that specialist that I am actually dealt with."
Earlier this week, Derry MLA Sinéad McLaughlin called on the Western Trust to urgently improve access to contraception services in the Derry city area.
Caroline added that the lack of accessibility to services is having an impact on women’s health and wellbeing.
“It’s just not good enough any more because it’s having an impact on women’s physical and mental wellbeing,” Caroline said.
“The basic thing is that if you get an answering machine message from a patient, ring them back.
“It just creates more doubts and more insecurity with women’s gynae treatment, who are already made feel like there is nothing wrong with them.”
The Western Trust was contacted for a statement.
