Women’s health is missing in action from the new NHS priorities
You know that iconic scene in America’s Next Top Model, where Tyra Banks starts laying into model Tiffany Richardson and basically screams “We were all rooting for you! How dare you!?” in her face?
Yeah, that’s basically how I’ve felt while trying to get the Government - one I was low-key relieved and optimistic to see take the reins after years of Conservative rule - to answer what should be a pretty simple question over the past week.
That being: what is the current strategy to improve women’s health in 2025? It’s a question that - given their high-profile promises to save the NHS - should be fairly straightforward. It’s also one that urgently needs answering.
We all know that medical misogyny is a very real (and costly) issue, with doctors-in-training only being required to study a women's health module as recently as three years ago. The average wait time to be diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition that only impacts females, is more than eight years (and rising).
Then there’s the fact that we face the largest gender health gap in the G20 (the world’s 20 largest economies) and the 12th largest globally, with research showing that despite living longer on average, women spend more years living in poor health than men. Oh! And a recent investigation found 65% of maternity hospital units are "not safe for women to give birth in" either.
It isn’t good enough. But further alarm was sounded last week when the Government’s new NHS priorities were published with… zero mention of women’s health services.
Targets related to women’s health hubs - the one-stop-shops that were first introduced by the previous administration to house women’s health experts in one space and cut the need for multiple GP appointments and consequent waiting times - were also scrapped.
Dame Lesley Regan, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Imperial College, world-renowned expert on female health and the government’s own women’s health ambassador, voiced her concerns to The Telegraph last week, ahead of the new guidance being published.
She said it would be “very disappointing” for women’s health hub targets to be dropped and that “there already is a men’s health strategy: it’s called the NHS; it’s already designed by men for men”.
It’s a point that’s hard to argue with. Then there’s Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s announcement of plans for the first ever men’s health strategy, including MOT health checks to be rolled out for 130,000 men in pubs, offices and on building sites, in an effort to cut middle-aged heart disease-related deaths in men. It’s a necessary and important aim. But if men are getting a solid plan, why not women?
MP Karin Smyth, Minister of State for Secondary Care, spoke in Parliament last week to clear up concerns that women are being left in the dust. She argued that targets relating to women's health hubs have been scrapped for a positive reason: they have (for the most part) been met. And that the hubs themselves are not being scrapped (more of which below).
While it’s great that 93% of the health hub targets have been hit, it’s still not 100% - and given the many decades where women’s health was barely discussed, let alone prioritised, it’s no time to take a foot off the gas.
“I really understand that everybody’s up against the cosh,” Regan said in her Telegraph interview. “I really understand that we are very, very short of money, but the thing I would like to push is that we can’t afford not to prioritise the health hubs, because they’re going to reduce the waiting list.” (Regan hasn’t responded to a request for an updated comment.)
I also fear now that the government may be thinking: “women’s health? Ticked that one off the list”. While I totally get that the NHS needs to rebuild its foundations, cut waiting times and more in order to survive (and hopefully one day be functioning again) it’s disappointing that closing the gender health gap doesn’t seem to be a part of that.
The approach right now very much feels like it’s about lumping everyone in together until things are back on their feet. But is that really going to work for women?
Are women being sidelined... again?
It pains me to say it, given my intense dislike for much of the previous administration, but the energy for women’s healthcare seems to be going in the wrong direction. Last January I attended a summit put on by then-Secretary of State, Conservative MP Victoria Atkins, which clearly set out key areas of focus when it came to leveling up the NHS for women. It was far from perfect, but there was – to an extent – clarity. A sense that women’s needs were being prioritised.
This time around, after days of chasing for answers, a Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government inherited an NHS where half of women wait more than 18 weeks for gynaecological care, where women wait up to 10 years for an endometriosis diagnosis, and half of maternity units are inadequate or require improvement. Women have been let down for too long and we are determined to change that as we reform the health service.”
When it comes to how, exactly? “We have set out plans to use the independent sector to cut gynaecological waiting lists and for GPs to directly refer women with post-menopausal bleeding for tests and scans, and we have invested an extra £57 million for Start for Life services to help expectant and new mothers with their infants.”
But when I asked about targets to measure success against or whether there was an actual up-to-date, Labour-approved strategy I could read, they were less than forthcoming.
From what I can gather, the government looks to be carrying on with some of the work of its predecessors, while also saying it hopes to run a consultation to decide the future course of action for female patients.
“We are working with NHS England to take forward the Women's Health Strategy [established in 2022 by the Conservatives] – through our investment and reforms, we will make sure the NHS can be there for all women when they need it,” the spokesperson told Cosmopolitan UK.
As to what this looks like, practically? In lieu of concrete published plans, the below is what I could gather from what various Labour MPs have shared in Parliament.
Welcome changes if they happen - but change requires focus. Let’s hope women’s healthcare gets enough of it.
1. Reduce wait times
MP Karin Smyth said a big push is being made to reduce wait times for appointments, including those for gynaecological issues, from the current 18-month average wait down to 18 weeks.
This is part of Labour's overall Plan For Change which aims to cut appointment wait times overall, across various areas of healthcare.
Smyth said, "We are instructing the NHS to prioritise: cutting waiting times for operations, A&E and ambulances; making it easier for people to see a GP or a dentist; and improving the mental health of the nation" and that "that will mean around 60,000 women with suspected cancer are diagnosed earlier and treated faster; more than 200,000 extra women will be treated within 18 weeks, as we drive down long waits; and fewer women will be forced to wait 12 hours in A&E."
2. Improved maternity care – for all
Labour are seemingly also keen to invest in services relating to maternity care, referencing the shameful statistics that show Black and Asian women are more at risk of dying during childbirth or in the postpartum period than white women, due to racial biases and inadequate care.
"We are supporting failing trusts to make rapid improvements, training thousands more midwives for the first time, and we will set an explicit target to close the black and Asian maternal mortality gap," Smyth explained when questioned in Parliament what Labour's plans are.
Smyth also commented that in October, the government "extended the baby loss certificate service to help mums and dads who have suffered the heartbreak of pregnancy loss".
3. Women's health hubs will stay
While they're certainly not a fixture in every neighbourhood (it's not easy to find out where your nearest one might be) and have been described as a “postcode lottery”, it seems Labour are not looking to undo the women's health hubs put in place by the previous Conservative government.
The hubs are meant to be a one-stop-shop offering integrated and specialised care for women’s issues, from menopause to contraception, and to stop patients from being bounced pillar to post and chasing appointments.
"There was a target in last year’s planning guidance to roll out pilot women’s health hubs across the country by last December," said Smyth. "Today, there are at least 80 hubs, and at least nine out of every 10 integrated care systems have an open women’s health hub."
She went on to say, "Let me correct some fake news. We are not closing these hubs; we are not cutting them. The target to roll them out was in last year’s planning guidance. It was achieved in 93% of integrated care systems, which is why the target is not repeated in this year’s guidance—it has been met in 39 out of 42 areas."
In general, the new NHS England guidelines point to things being managed on a more local level across the board too, by way of speeding things up and tapping into local knowledge.
4. Untangling medical misogyny
When asked about medical misogyny by Labour MP, Rachel Taylor (who pointedly said that "under the last Government, five times more research went into erectile dysfunction, which affects 19% of men, than went into premenstrual syndrome, which affects 90% of women"), Smyth responded that she's glad to have more women across all political parties who can continue to push for greater equality.
She added that there are now "more women in senior positions in the National Institute for Health and Care Research [and] crucially, we have women leading in science and research".
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