Carla Lockhart said, “This is an issue I have been raising with the Health Minister constituently. It hasn’t just come about due to recent pressures and even before the pandemic there were unacceptable delays for women attempting to receive a diagnosis.
We are lagging behind the rest of the United Kingdom in this area, as evidenced by the inquiry report produced by the APPG on Endometriosis. Those findings have been further backed up by the report from the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists.
Of utmost priority must be the reinstatement of a specialist care service in the Wester Trust. We also need to see the Belfast Centre to become fully accredited. In the meantime, we need access to care to be made available across the UK for those locally in need of care. I have raised that point with the Government in the past and they are sympathetic to the case.
It is unacceptable for women in Northern Ireland to face the pain and damage of this condition without appropriate and necessary services.”