Partners from across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight came together for the NHS’s Empowering Women’s Health event on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 March at the Portsmouth Guildhall. The two-day event showcased the partnership working that is improving health outcomes for local women, the growing network of local women’s health champions and identified areas for further collaboration.
The event heard from a range of leaders from across the health and care system and the voluntary, charity and research sectors about the work they have been doing to increase knowledge and understanding and make improvements for women’s health. Women make up 51% of the population but the evidence suggests women are not receiving the same level of care, investigation or treatment for common and important diseases when compared to men and they often face some unique challenges accessing health care. For example, although women typically live longer than men, they are more likely to live more years in poor health than men and a woman is 50% more likely than a man to receive the wrong initial diagnosis for a heart attack.
NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight’s women’s health programme partners have been working since 2023 to set up the local women’s health network and deliver against the ambition to improve health care for local women. This has included conducting a local women’s health survey which received over 1000 responses from Hampshire and Isle of Wight residents. The findings from this survey were discussed at the two-day event and will now shape the future work of the programme.
Speaking at the event Lena Samuels, Chair of NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight, said: “This two-day conference is all about raising the profile of how we improve health services for women. On day one it’s about celebrating and hearing how our partnership working is making a real difference while day two focuses on how we empower women and girls to feel confident talking about their health and accessing the services they need.
“We’ve done some great work over the last couple of years working with all our partners to deliver the women’s health hub as well as researching specific issues that affect women’s health to inform our future work. These two days are helping us to build on that by connecting people, connecting services and really helping to inform what our women’s health strategy needs to look like for the coming year.”
Fran White, Associate Director of Policy, Innovation and Partnerships, said: “We want to reflect the fact that women’s health goes beyond the boundaries of healthcare. There are all sorts of different things that can impact it – educational factors can impact it, where you grew up, your background and experiences, and then also societal and historical views on women’s health, especially on things like periods and menopause. These all now have an impact on how people access services, so we’re trying to build awareness of all this.”
Claire Lambon, CEO of Stop Domestic Abuse, said: “It’s important that the voices of women who have been victims of domestic abuse are heard as they’re a largely marginalised group who often have trouble engaging with NHS services. Working in partnership as part of the women’s health programme across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, we’ve been able to start to make a real difference on this. An example of excellent partnership working is that we now have domestic abuse advocates working with and co-locating with hospital staff to support them and their patients affected by domestic abuse. We know there is more we can do so that women and girls voices are amplified and heard, their needs are listened to and the right services at the right time are provided for them.”
Lynne Ruddick, Associate Director for Innovation Adoption, Health Innovation Wessex, said: “Women are poorly represented in research and in innovation yet if their needs are to be addressed, they need to be front and centre of this. The collaboration between partners across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight is so important in embedding women at the centre of our ways of working to improve their health care.”
NHS Hampshire and the Isle of Wight worked closely with Endometriosis South Coast to co-produce the event to ensure it met the needs of local communities and professionals. We will be sharing clips of the event on the NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight LinkedIn page.
More information about women’s health can be found on the NHS website.