RCOG: Better for women report. Improving the health and wellbeing of girls and women (December 2019)

Summary

Too often, women are struggling to get the right information they need about their health, to book routine appointments and to get their basic health needs met. Health services miss opportunities to ask the right questions, prevent illness and ensure the best outcomes for girls and women.

This report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) follows a survey of over 3000 women in the UK and identifies simple and cost-effective solutions to prevent girls and women falling through the cracks of our health systems.

A strategic approach is required across the life course to prevent predictable morbidity and mortality and to address the determinants of health specific to women’s health. 

Content

Key recommendations from report

1. The creation of NHS-led Women’s Health Strategies.
2. Young people should be educated from an early age about women’s health.
3. The NHS website should become the world’s best source of information for girls, women and clinicians.
4. To reduce health inequalities, all women should have access to and be provided with the information that they need to stay healthy.
5. Access to the full range of contraception methods should be as easy as possible for all women.
6. Post-pregnancy contraception should be a key part of the maternity pathway.
7. Introduce mandated co-commissioning of SRH services across the UK.
8. Increase public health and sexual health budgets in real terms.
9. Women’s health one-stop clinics should be established in local community hubs and training on women’s health should be delivered to support primary and community care.
10. All women should be able to access abortion care easily and without fear of penalties or harassment.
11. End post-code lotteries in IVF treatment and offer all eligible women three full cycles of IVF.
12. England, Wales and Northern Ireland must offer women the same opportunities for IVF treatment as in Scotland and follow the NICE Fertility Guideline which recommends that women under 40 should be offered three full cycles of IVF.
13.  Introduce a life course approach to preventing noncommunicable disease in women and their children supported by data collection before, during and after pregnancy.
14. UK Governments should take strong action to improve the health of pregnant women and their babies.
15. Improve identification of women at risk from mental and physical health issues with the six week postnatal check.
16. End the data gender gap,
17. End violence against girls and women via an improved collaborative approach, better IT systems and mandatory training with the NHS as an exemplar.
18. Increase uptake in cervical screening amongst disadvantaged and marginalised women.
19. Increase uptake in cervical screening by ending fragmentation and harnessing technologies.
20. Improve early diagnosis and treatment of gynaecological cancers.
21. Women’s health issues should be embedded in workplace policies.
22. Appointment times at GP services should increase to 15 minutes.
23. Increase awareness of pelvic floor dysfunction.