Women’s Health Strategy for England

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Wednesday 20th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Steve Barclay]

That was one of the key issues that came out of the consultation responses. Indeed, in my conversation with Dr Watson at Homerton, we looked at different pathways for treatment that avoid the need for theatre. Key to that is some of the innovation on pain management that physicians are looking at, and how, through NICE, we socialise that innovation across the NHS.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

The north-east has some of the highest levels of health inequality in the country. North-east women spend more than a quarter of their lives in not good or poor health, which is almost 3 percentage points above the national average. Will the Secretary of State set out the steps that he plans to take to target those areas that already have high levels of inequality? Does he agree that, when he talks about research—I very much welcome the additional research—that should also target areas with high levels of existing inequality, which, unfortunately, is not the case at the moment?

[Steve Barclay]

We are already doing so on things such as the 75 family hubs that we have put in place. Again, a key part of this strategy is to then look at having women’s hubs, particularly in those areas where there is greatest disparity.