Gynaecology services ‘on back foot for long time’

Gynaecology services have been “on the back foot in Ireland” for a long time, with women, often elderly, left “sitting on waiting lists” with debilitating conditions such as prolapsed wombs, according to the first female chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Cliona Murphy, a consultant obstetrician/gynaecologist at the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital and Tallaght Hospital, said consultants receive “piles of referral letters from GPs every week”, trying to access gynaecology services for their patients at a time when the outpatient waiting list figure is close to 30,000.