Don't abandon women's health hubs

31/01/25 . News

The Forum has today written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting urging him not to abandon his plans for Women's Health Hubs.

NHS England's 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance published in January 2025 reduced the number of health targets has to 18 from 32. Women's hubs were among those no longer included. These hubs had been intended for every region of England to help people with menopause and reproductive health.

Also signed by colleagues and partners in the Men's Health Strategy Campaign, the letter said: 'It is essential that we improve the health of women and girls in our country and overcome the health barriers they have faced for far too long. As made clear by our partners in the women’s health sector, these health hubs will have a vital role to play.'

The letter argued that: 'to improve health outcomes we need a strategic, gendered approach to both women’s and men’s health. They are complementary, not antagonistic. We would urge you to keep gender at the forefront of your thinking when it comes to health service reform.' It concluded by urging the Health Secretary to reconsider the decision 'and make both a Women’s Health Strategy and a Men’s Health Strategy cornerstones of the new … NHS.'

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has also written to Wes Streeting.

 

 

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In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

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