NHS Accused of "Medical Misogyny" as Government Relaunches Women's Health Strategy
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has accused the NHS of harbouring an "appalling culture of medical misogyny" as the government published a renewed Women's Health Strategy for England, setting out 117 action points to address what it admits are deeply entrenched failures in how the health system treats women.
The strategy comes four years after the original version was launched by the Conservative government in 2022, and the picture it paints suggests things have got worse, not better. Female life expectancy has fallen. Gynaecology waiting lists have more than doubled in eight years to over 565,000. Endometriosis now takes an average of nine years and four months to diagnose, rising to 11 years for women from diverse ethnic communities. Women are more likely than men to have a heart attack misdiagnosed. Only the wealthiest third of women can expect to remain in good health until retirement.
"At the heart of these challenges is a systematic failure to listen to women," the strategy states. "If our approach to health and care does not work for all women — 51% of the population — then simply put: it does not work."
Streeting did not soften his language. He described women being "gaslit" and having their pain treated "as an inconvenience and their symptoms as an overreaction." He said some women have been made to feel like "second class citizens" and cited a "culture of medical misogyny, sexism in the NHS, both conscious and unconscious bias" that was "getting disproportionately worse for women." On BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, he said: "Women's voices must be central to delivering effective, respectful and empathetic care. We need to hit medical misogyny where it hurts – the wallet."
That last line is a reference to one of the strategy's headline new measures: a "patient power payment" scheme, in which women will be able to give feedback on their treatment and that feedback will directly influence funding. Providers who receive negative feedback could lose money. Gynaecology has been chosen as the first area to trial the scheme. There is also a new standard of care requiring that women be offered appropriate pain relief for invasive procedures such as fitting a contraceptive coil or hysteroscopies, a streamlined single referral point to ensure women are directed to the right clinician first time, and a £1m menstrual health education programme to help girls distinguish between normal and abnormal periods.
Reactions from women's health organisations were cautiously positive but sceptical. Emma Cox, chief executive of Endometriosis UK, called a new strategy "desperately needed" but said the pledges "must be matched with a clear roadmap for delivery, including ensuring the necessary resources and capacity." Dr Alison Wright, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, welcomed the plans but said the picture "remains deeply concerning" and called for Women's Health Hubs to be embedded within the broader neighbourhood health model.
The Royal Osteoporosis Society however, flagged a significant gap: despite a previous government commitment, there is still no national plan for osteoporosis services, a condition affecting half of women over 50. Around 2,000 lives a year are at stake, the society said.
Some who had been optimistic in 2022 are now disillusioned. Dr Stephanie Cook, a GP and director of strategy at Women's Health Liverpool, said: "Being honest, I'm disappointed there were so many good ambitions there, but the support just hasn't come. It just feels like no one's listening. We've got the solutions. We know they work."
