For all of my life up until my early twenties, I like the majority of
Irish citizens, went public for health treatments.
This was never an issue for me, until it was. I have been waiting for nearly five years for a surgical procedure. If I went private, it could have been done way back in 2021, when I was initially referred.
The surgery in question, thankfully, isn’t a major one but one which during the wait time has caused me immense pain. I am due to get my wisdom teeth removed and I firstly want to say I have a fantastic dentist and I am soon to have a fantastic surgeon who will hopefully answer all my prayers.
I went to the dentist with pain in my gums in 2021 and he informed me that the pain was from my wisdom teeth. At that time I didn’t have any insurance or a medical card; the extent of my health cover was a GP visit card so my dentist referred me publically.
I expected, at a maximum, I would maybe wait a year. Oh how wrong I was...
When I first went to meet my now dentist, I was in my third year of college and I was 21 years old. I was on my dream work placement and I was getting ready to move to Barcelona for seven months of compulsory Erasmus. I am 25 years old at the end of this month and I have since graduated and found my feet at Iconic Media. So a lot has changed to say the least.
I felt helpless. I decided overall I needed health cover and dental cover. I decided to go ahead with a particular healthcare provider during my final year in college. As a broke college student during this time, I was justifying that half of my part-time wage was going towards private health insurance because the end goal was maybe being able to go private and not have to wait as long for the surgery.
How wrong was I? The provider told me, as it was a “pre-existing” condition, it would not be covered. So I remained on the public list so long I was finally added to receive the treatment privately through the public system. Around the same time of receiving a consultation date for my private procedure, I received a surgery date for the public system. The timing couldn’t have been more ironic.
I am due to have four wisdom teeth removed, which are all under my gum. When I got the surgery date publicly they told me they could only guarantee the removal of two. Although my dentist sent a letter to say four are required, it still couldn’t be guaranteed. I decided to go to the consultation privately and I was shocked at the difference.
READ NEXT: Mum whose baby was diagnosed with rare cataract after spotting ‘small cloud’ in eye at 10 weeks ‘races’ to save sightThe surgeon guaranteed me he would take out four and I felt much more at ease because I was only going to have to go through the surgery once, which all in all makes more sense. The same day of the consultation I had a surgery date and I knew I only had one month to wait until surgery. I had prepared myself mentally and I was ready to have it all behind me and hopefully have a relatively manageable recovery.
The surgery date, which was due to be on August 26 was cancelled the week before and I was devastated. However, these things happen and they were immediately apologetic and I completely understood. Within the same day, I was given a new date for the end of October. All going well, the surgery will go ahead and I will hopefully have a maximum of two weeks of pain.
The system seems broken and I don’t need to tell you this; it is not the nurses', doctors' or surgeons' fault. For the last five years I have struggled with sinus pressure which led to infection after infection directly correlating with my wisdom teeth. Last April, I was on annual leave and every single day I spent crying in pain. I never felt anything like it. It was worse than any other pain I've felt before. It turns out the teeth had all come up. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t leave my bed.
I remember cursing the system and how backwards it all seemed. How I now pay nearly €90 for private health insurance every month and I don’t ever see a return. It seems like dead money but you need to have it, right? That is what we are told. When it came to having my initial surgery date changed, I decided I needed a break and I took three days off and I finally managed to relax. My perspective on my personal circumstance will eventually change once they are removed, however, I am angry.
I couldn’t get a medical card, I couldn’t use my private health insurance and I was forced to wait nearly five years for the procedure. The system is not good enough. Too many mistakes happen, too many lives are lost and too many people are waiting in way worse pain and what is it all for?
With a cost of living crisis, why are we spending our money on private health insurance if it doesn’t get you anywhere. It does not seem in my case to matter if you are public or private, the system is broken and our government needs to do better. It is simply not good enough.
I hope to see a better change from our government in the upcoming budget and I hope what happened to me doesn’t happen many more people. We all need to do better and hopefully this might start the conversation.
