Sharon Hodgson MP: Women and girls in Washington and Gateshead South to be put at the heart of healthcare
For too long women and girls have not felt listened to when they have sought medical advice. Indeed, more than eight in ten women admit that there have been times when healthcare professionals did not listen to them.
Whether it be the normalisation of their pain, the repeated appointments with no answers or the dismissal of their real and valid concerns – women and girls have long been crying out for a system that listens the first time.
As not just a long-standing advocate for women's health and a former lead campaigner for those harmed by the mesh, valproate and primodos scandals but simply just as a woman – this Labour government’s renewed women's health strategy for England has filled me with hope and pride.
Having already introduced Jess’s rule – guidance which means that GP teams must “reflect, review and rethink” when a patient presents three times with the same or worsening symptoms – this government has already placed patient safety at the forefront of policy. However, the women’s health strategy goes further and faster to address the long-standing systematic injustices that women and girls face. With the aim to challenge imbedded behaviours which have enabled medical misogyny to thrive, the strategy seeks to utilise survey data in a quality improvement programme to standardise how GPs listen to women. It is about ensuring women are able to make informed choices about their bodies to properly consent to procedures and feel that their quality of care is underpinned consistently by validation and compassion.
To deliver this systematic overhaul, the strategy uses both preventative and responsive measures to improve the overall experience of women. This is not just words – this is action. I was glad to see the Secretary of State for Health announce the first ever trial of a scheme called “patient power payments” which will cover gynaecology services. It will give women a say on whether the NHS provider should be entitled to full payment for the services they receive. This shifts the autonomy from the provider to the patient and rightly gives women the power to not only say when an experience is not good enough but to see consequences as a result. This should too encourage providers to give the best quality of care with the incentive that they will receive the full payment. If not, the money will be redirected to fund improvements in the services.
As part of the government’s preventative work, we are introducing a programme which will improve the understanding young girls hold regarding their menstrual health ensuring they know what is normal and what is not and crucially – when to seek help. Additionally, through the new virtual hospital ‘NHS online’, women will be seen faster and offered clearer information through prioritised women’s health pathways. It will have a consistent focus on the reduction of women’s pain and the variation in pain management.
No longer on our watch will women and girls view being ignored and invalidated as normal. This strategy marks the beginning of a new chapter for how women and girls will experience healthcare – huge systematic change only made possible because of the choices made by a Labour Government.