Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to tackle disparities in (a) access to care and (b) experiences of care of gynaecological procedures.

The Women’s Health Strategy encourages the expansion of women’s health hubs to improve women’s access to and experiences of care, including for menstrual problems and gynaecological conditions. We are currently considering the approach to the implementation of the Women’s Health Strategy.

Gynaecology is also one of six specialties prioritised through NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) high volume low complexity programme, which supports the establishment of surgical hubs for high-volume procedures and the development of standardised patient pathways. GIRFT aims to provide more choice for the 767,000 women admitted to hospital for a gynaecology procedure annually and those attending more than 3.6 million outpatient appointments. It also includes innovative ideas for transforming the outpatient experience and reducing the amount of time women spend in hospital.