Health: Women and Pain

Lord Patel Excerpts

Monday 9th November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I certainly agree. Looking back at the 2022 women’s health strategy, 84% of women experienced not being listened to by a healthcare professional. As I have already stated, that is totally unacceptable. A third of those women said that this had harmed their mental well-being. This is a very serious matter and that is why we are strengthening professional education across a range of conditions, testing out the patient power payments and introducing patient reported-experience measures. All those should drive improvements of care over the next five years, some more immediately than others.

[Lord Patel (CB)]

My Lords, one of the commendable objectives defined in the 10-year health plan is the development of women’s health centres. Can the Minister confirm that these will be not just advisory centres but diagnostic and, if possible, treatment centres, and that they will be appropriately staffed and funded?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The centres will very much take a multidisciplinary approach, not least because they are about seeing women as a whole rather than as a condition. That is the big change we will see. It will inspire change across neighbourhood health services, not just in respect of women.