Overview
- Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill published the first nationwide care pathway for endometriosis, aiming to reduce delays in diagnosis and treatment for a condition affecting an estimated one in seven women.
- The HSE introduced a direct-payment scheme for approved care abroad, covering travel and surgery costs and paying treatment centres directly so patients avoid upfront bills.
- Capacity-building steps include more than 100 extra surgeries from 1 October on top of about 1,200 already scheduled, recruitment of an additional colorectal surgeon, and international fellowships to expand specialist expertise.
- Services will be organised across five specialist centres—Rotunda, Coombe and University Hospital Limerick operating now, with University Hospital Galway and the National Maternity Hospital in development—with complex cases referred to super-regional hubs in Dublin and Cork.
- The HSE will separately track endometriosis data rather than folding it into general gynaecology, as patient groups continue to report women traveling abroad for gold‑standard excision surgery due to limited domestic availability.