Government appoints first women’s health tsar

The government has announced that Dame Lesley Regan, formerly president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), is to be the ambassador for women’s health.

Part of Dame Lesley’s role will be to close the gender health gap, and to support the government’s women’s health strategy, due out later this year. She said her appointment was an “important opportunity to get it right for women and girls, and make a real difference to 51 per cent of our population by addressing the inequalities that exist across society.”

Dame Lesley, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Imperial College London, told BBC News that she would like to see one-stop shops for women to receive medical care for health conditions. This would include, for example, smear tests, HRT and contraception: “At the moment, we waste a lot of resource in telling girls and women that they cannot have things. So you might go off to your doctor or gynaecologist or heart specialist and get told, well, you cannot have a smear here, even if it is due, or you need to go somewhere else for this, that and the other. We should make it very, very easy for people to access this out in the community – why do you need to go to a secondary or tertiary facility for things that are very easy to provide?”

Changing systems that contribute to the gender health gap

The aim of the government’s women’s health strategy for England is to eradicate taboos in women’s health to ensure all women feel comfortable talking about their health, as well as ensuring high-quality information and education and health services are available and accessible to women of all ages. It aims to change the systems that contribute to the gender health gap and biases against women and their health.

When the Department of Health and Social Care carried out a public consultation into women’s health last year, it received more than 100,000 responses. Analysis of those responses found that many women do not feel heard within the health care system. In December, it published a vision document, in which it set out a plan to  focus on women’s health across the life course and to “ identify the critical stages, transitions, and settings where there are opportunities to promote good health, to prevent negative health outcomes, or to restore health and wellbeing.”

Sajid Javid, the health and social care secretary, said of Dame Lesley’s appointment: “The healthcare system needs to work for everyone, and I am committed to tacking inequalities which exist within it, particularly for women. Closing the gender health gap is critical for a fair health and care system in the future. I look forward to working closely with Dame Lesley on our shared mission to ensure all women feel listened to by the health and care system and are able to access the support and services they need.”