A terminally ill Irish woman who left Australia so that she could die in Ireland has said that she is "disgusted" by the Irish healthcare system.
Meabh Feerick, 25, from Ballinrobe in County Mayo, was diagnosed with an advanced and aggressive form of skin cancer last December while living in Sydney with her three-year-old son Noah.
Despite undergoing a hip replacement and extensive head and neck surgery, her condition has worsened over the past nine months, prompting her to set up a GoFundMe so that she could travel home to Ireland before she died.
Feerick is currently being cared for at a hospice in Castlebar and slammed the "appalling" Irish healthcare system.
She said that Irish doctors were unable to read her medical files that she had brought on a USB from Australia because of the cyberattack on the HSE in May this year, meaning that she had to re-do a number of scans and X-rays.
"I brought all my files, scans, etc home on a USB with all the information from my doctors in Australia.
"However, when I brought them to doctors here, they couldn’t read them or access them because of the Cyberattack on the HSE," she told Western People in a recent interview.
"As a result, I had to have all the scans and x-rays done again but I was told this would take six to eight weeks. For someone with my diagnosis, this was devastating. There was such a backlog in the system, there was no room for me to be booked in for tests and scans."
She also hit out at the lack of resources in Irish healthcare facilities, stating that one Irish nurse does the job of five Australian nurses.
"The system is shocking because budgets are so low. The whole thing is poorly run and so inefficient with nobody being held accountable."
Feerick said that she had shortened her life by choosing to return to Ireland.
"I am disgusted and appalled to see that the system in our small country is so bad. If I had stayed in Australia, I would have had better options. I am embarrassed to say that because I came home, I have shortened my life."
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