How cruel is the Irish healthcare system? It should be simple
■ Living in Ireland after a cervical cancer CIN 3 scare in Australia, I was talking to a friend about this topic.
She had an abnormal pap test and had to come back in six months.
So what was it? A blank look. A veteran, I had a CIN 1 positive before changing houses, which meant I missed the results.
When retested eight months later it was CIN 3.
Referred to the specials with dye, it was a large CIN 3.
A week later, the same doctor removed with laser the offending CIN. Tests showed there were no abnormal cells around the sides.
So I went to three-monthly tests, then six-monthly after a year, then yearly then back to two-yearly – and then back to yearly when I got a CIN 1 and they checked again that all was OK. It was.
How upsetting was it? First time, very. But then I looked it up and 98pc of Australian women survive even CIN 3.
You see at every stage, I was told exactly what was happening, bar the time the email didn’t arrive because of a typo.
My friend only knew she had some sort of pre-cancer thing. And was left in the dark for months about whether she would die or not. How cruel is the Irish healthcare system?
The worst thing is, the answer is quite simple.
CIN 1: Actually quite normal. Will often disappear.
CIN 2: Requires regular check-ups, but may not turn into CIN 3 or cancer.
CIN 3: Will definitely turn into cancer, but may take 10 years. Post-CIN 3: Cervical cancer.
If the Irish Government actually cared about women in Ireland, above is a picture-perfect textbook case of how to deal with pre-cervical cancer cells. Each step took exactly a week from test to results, from results to treatment.
How much will it cost? How much is a mother’s or a sister’s life worth?
Bring in a tax, open a proper pathology lab which could be used for all pathology requests with a maximum one-week turn-around and have specialist doctors to perform the laser surgery required. Pauline Bleach Wolli Creek, Australia