Kelly O'Shea says she has woken from more than one operation to be told adequate resources were not available to do the procedure she needed. The 32-year-old, who lives with chronic pain, felt there was no alternative but to pay £20,000 for the endometriosis treatment she needed, out of frustration and desperation. It comes as gynaecologists warn specialist centres in Wales dealing with complex cases of endometriosis are in jeopardy and a national service must be commissioned.
The deputy minister for women's health in Wales said the current set up was "not sustainable" and is discussing options for a regional or national service to be established. Changes are being introduced by national accreditation body British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy (BSGE) highlighting the resource challenges faced by hospitals in Wales. Clinical staff say it has been made worse because of the funding differences between England and Wales.
They say unless more resources are found to increase capacity and dedicate teams to endometriosis care, BSGE-accreditation requirements will not be met, which would lead to a downgrading of services, a potential skills exodus and large numbers of patients being sent to England for care. At a recent cross-party Senedd group on women's health, gynaecologists said Wales either needed a nationally commissioned service or an overhaul of the funding model to better reflect the true cost of the specialist care. The call is mirrored by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, who said the Welsh government must "commit to sustainable resourcing of gynaecology services - including adequate workforce numbers, staff training and appropriate facilities across the country".
Kelly said she had been in daily pain for about three and a half years, though her symptoms started when she was a teenager. As mother to a young son, she said it affected everything. As her endometriosis is also in her bowel, she has been told she needs bowel and bladder specialists alongside endometriosis specialists during surgery.
After her last operation she said she was woken 45 minutes later to discover a bowel surgeon had been unavailable, so her endometriosis was left untouched. BBC Wales has spoken to another woman whose surgery was stopped in a different part of Wales, for the same reason. On another occasion Kelly's surgery was cut short because the theatre was needed for an urgent case.
"I was promised we'd have the whole team there and they'd get me out of pain," she said. "But it's always the same excuse - they weren't available, or they ran out of surgery time. You just think 'why are you putting me through an operation if you haven't got the surgery time?' "Every time they go in I'm getting more and more scar tissue from these surgeries.
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