‘SUITE’ NEWS FOR SCOTTISH WOMEN
As the Scottish Government publishes its Women’s Health Plan: A plan for 2021-2024, SP looks at the added benefits it will bring to female health across Scotland.
T
he main aim of the new Women’s Health Plan is simple: it aims to improve health outcomes and health services for all
women and girls in Scotland and is underpinned by the acknowledgement that women face particular health inequalities and, in some cases, disadvantages – simply because they are women.
For example, women currently make up 51.5 per cent of the Scottish population and yet, according to the Plan, are ‘less likely to be invited to, or participate in, medical trials and research’.
The Plan also highlights the fact that there is an ‘increasing body of evidence’, which suggests that occurrence and outcomes of disease – which were previously thought to be the same for men and women – are actually not.
The Women’s Health Plan is extremely wide- ranging in its coverage of female health issues and conditions, and focuses on a ‘suite’ of new services to address these issues.
Reproductive and gynaecological health problems are just one example of the conditions featured.
‘In the UK,’ says the report, ‘one in three women will experience a reproductive or gynaecological health problem at some point in their lives. Despite this, in 2018, just 2.1 per cent of publicly- funded research spend was dedicated solely to reproductive health and childbirth, a reduction from 2.5 per cent in 2014. Endometriosis affects around ten per cent of women and girls globally, it is therefore estimated that one in ten women in Scotland have endometriosis.
‘Despite its high prevalence, the average time to diagnosis from onset of symptoms in Scotland is 8.5 years. Although endometriosis is as common in women as diabetes and asthma, it has failed to attract the same attention, support and funding as those diseases.’
So, what does the Scottish Government intend to do to remove these healthcare inequalities? The Women’s Health Plan clearly defines its primary ambition.
‘Our ambition,’ it states, ‘is for a Scotland where health outcomes are equitable across the population, so that women enjoy the best
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