Dr Ranee Thakar, RCOG President, reflects on the RCOG’s review of the progress made in the implementation of the Women’s Health Strategy for England and the need for refocused efforts on achieving better for women.
Today, the College has published a high-level assessment of the Women’s Health Strategy for England, assessing what has changed for women and girls since its launch in 2022, the challenges that remain across women’s healthcare, and what needs to happen next to accelerate progress.
The strategy itself was born out of the RCOG’s own Better for Women report in 2019, which called for national women’s health plans to be established in each UK nation. We warmly welcomed the subsequent introduction of women’s health plans and strategies, committing much needed focus to better supporting women and girls to live healthy and happy lives.
Our new analysis of the Women’s Health Strategy for England has identified meaningful green-shoots of progress in three years. These include the establishment of local women’s health hubs enabling more women to access a range of vital services closer to home, improved access to oral contraception through local pharmacies since 2023 and the introduction of over 400 Family Hubs providing essential perinatal and maternal mental health care across the country.
However, despite the incredible efforts of NHS staff working in women’s health services, overall progress on delivering the Strategy is patchy. Our members see first-hand the very real impact of long gynaecology waiting lists for women, which remain among the longest across elective specialties. Women also continue to face difficulties and delays in accessing contraception and other essential services, and unacceptable inequalities affecting marginalised and deprived communities remain deeply entrenched.
We believe that 2025 must be the turning point. The Government’s 10 Year Health Plan sets a bold vision for the future NHS, and the shift towards a neighbourhood health service focused on prevention and powered by digital innovation is the right one. However, the reality is that the plan has little detail on how and when these ambitions will deliver for women and the women’s health workforce.
Refreshing the Women’s Health Strategy in line with the 10 Year plan - and committing to a three-yearly review cycle - presents a real opportunity to ensure that all public services understand and are committed in their role to supporting women to access the high-quality care they deserve, wherever they are in their lives.
This is an incredibly challenging time to be working in O&G, with funding and staffing shortfalls, seismic NHS re-organisation ahead alongside the national maternity care investigation over the next six months. We know our members are doing everything they can to deliver compassionate and high quality care, often in difficult circumstances. This report is part of our ongoing commitment to advocating for the system-level change needed to improve things for our members, and through this, to deliver better for women.
Women make up 51% of the population, and around 77% of the health and care workforce, but live longer in poorer health and face unique challenges in accessing care. The Government was elected on the promise that “never again” would women’s health be neglected, and recently unveiled a new blueprint for the future NHS. As our report today shows, now is the time to design an NHS with women at its heart.
- Read the report here: A Work in Progress: evaluating the Women’s Health Strategy | RCOG