You don’t need to be a health expert to know the NHS is struggling. There’s a reason why the health service was such a big area of focus in the general election; between statistics showing that one in 20 women have PTSD after giving birth in the UK and the fact that it still takes, on average, nine years to get an endometriosis diagnosis, it’s clear that the UK’s healthcare system isn’t in the best place, particularly when it comes to women’s health.

And now we have more data confirming that women are missing out on the timely healthcare they deserve. According to new analysis of NHS and Office for National Statistics (ONS) data by the health testing company Forth, the number of patients waiting 18 or more weeks for gynaecology treatment in England increased by a massive 935% from 2013-2023.  

The analysis, which centres around the 18-week ‘Referral to Treatment’ (RTT) standard – a target introduced in 2004 to ensure patients would not need to wait longer than four months from their initial appointment to start treatment – also found that almost half of patients now end up waiting over that standard, rising from 4.4% in December 2013 to 48.2% in December 2023. 

If one thing’s for sure, Keir Starmer’s government will have their work cut out for them to provide the care women so desperately need. Sarah Bolt – the CEO and founder of Forth – says a lot needs to be done to address such a huge problem.

“Services within women’s health will require targeted funding to enable the NHS to expand its capacity and ensure timely access to specialist services,” she says. “Without dedicated resources for these services, the impact will be limited concerning women’s healthcare. Additional steps must be taken to address pressing needs within the health sector – without targeted measures, the goal of reducing waiting times within this area will remain out of reach.” 

It waits to be seen what impact the new government will have on women’s health services. If they meet the promises laid out in their manifesto, we could be in luck: not only does the document promise to cut NHS waiting times by providing, among other things, 40,000 new appointments every week, but it says that women’s health will “never again” be neglected.

For now, however, the NHS says it’s working hard to get waiting times down. When Strong Women approached the NHS for comment, a spokesperson said, “While the latest data shows that, thanks to the hard work of staff, each month over the past 10 months more elective activity has been delivered compared with the same month pre-pandemic, we know there is much more to do to bring down long waits for care, particularly for women who are waiting for crucial appointments and treatment.

“The NHS is continuing to work closely with local care systems to improve women’s health outcomes, including by appointing our first ever dedicated national clinical director for women’s health who will help to make improvements across England.” 

Images: Getty