Welsh Endometriosis Centres Risk Accreditation Loss — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Kelly O'Shea, 32, paid £20,000 for private endometriosis surgery after waking from NHS operations to find bowel surgeons unavailable and theatre time reassigned to urgent cases, leaving her endometriosis untouched.
- Cardiff and Vale health board placed its specialist endometriosis centre on its risk register, warning BSGE accreditation could be lost unless criteria around dedicated multidisciplinary teams and minimum surgical volumes are met.
- Delyth Jewell MS, deputy minister for women's health, told a cross-party Senedd meeting the current setup was "not sustainable" and backed calls for a regional or nationally commissioned service.
- The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the Welsh government must "commit to sustainable resourcing of gynaecology services," joining Welsh gynaecologists' calls for a national service or funding model overhaul.
- Surgeon Lutfi Shamsuddin told the meeting the Cardiff centre relied on "the goodwill" of radiologists and urologists rather than having those roles formally built into rotas as accreditation requires.
- A petition to save the Cardiff and Vale centre has surpassed 11,000 signatures; NHS Wales confirmed no new investment was made available for 2026-27 to establish national endometriosis services.
Why it matters: Roughly one in 10 women has endometriosis, with the 40% referred to hospital needing specialist multidisciplinary care. If Welsh centres lose BSGE accreditation, complex cases would be redirected to England at higher cost to NHS Wales — and the £20,000 Kelly O'Shea paid privately illustrates what patients face when the public system cannot deliver.
Ask SkimNews
