Why Scotland's women need an NHS that works for all

In December 2020, the first Covid vaccine appeared – yet because the trial had not included pregnant women, it was not available to millions. Tragically, it would later emerge that pregnant women were among the most at risk from the virus.

For centuries, medicine has historically focused on a male ‘norm’ at the expense of women. Women make up more than half the population, yet crippling diseases like endometriosis are under-diagnosed and under-researched. While public health campaigns tackling heart disease have traditionally focused on men, women are less likely to be prescribed the drugs to reduce the chance of a second heart attack.

Scotland’s Women’s Health Plan aimed to counter these inequalities by setting out clear ambitions, including improving access to contraception and abortion services, improving treatment for endometriosis, and supporting women through life stages like menstruation and the menopause. The plan held up a mirror to the SNP’s health policy.

Decades of injustice

Three years on, the reflection is grim. The number of women on waiting lists of 78 weeks or more for an outpatient appointment from April to June this year doubled compared to the same period in 2022. Life expectancy is lower for women than before the pandemic. A higher proportion of women reported being in chronic pain compared to men in 2022.

Of course, no government can magically untangle decades of health injustice, but it’s telling that these inequalities also apply to the young women who have grown up during the SNP’s 17 years in power. Thirty per cent of women aged 16-24 described their health as very good in 2022 compared to 47 per cent of men. (See editor’s note below.)

In 2021/22, a third of women aged 16-24 reported symptoms of anxiety compared to 13 per cent of young men. And in 2022 the teenage pregnancy rate rose for the first time in over a decade.

The NHS needs to be more proactive with early interventions to nip trouble in the bud (Picture: Christopher Furlong) | Getty Images

NHS in crisis

Long-neglected elements of women’s health are finally getting the attention they deserve. But the reality is that when MSPs debated the Women’s Health Plan yesterday, it was against a backdrop of an NHS in crisis.

Women with abnormal cells found following a smear test unable to access colposcopies to get a diagnosis for 37 weeks; women in western Scotland having to pay to get ovarian cancer treatment; pregnant women and premature babies in Lanarkshire having to travel as far as Aberdeen to access specialist neo-natal units because the SNP want to downgrade the Wishaw unit.

According to the latest Women’s Health Plan update, in 2021/22 a quarter of women could not contact their GP in the way they wanted, while in 2024 one-in-four women on gynaecology waiting lists had to wait more than 20 weeks to be seen.

An NHS that works for all

The Women’s Health Plan makes the point that women’s health should be promoted at every stage of a patient’s life rather than focusing on one issue at a time. This same principle could be applied to our NHS as a whole.

We need a more proactive NHS with early interventions so that Scots grow up healthy, resilient and able to contact their GP at the first sign of a problem rather than when it’s too late.

A health service that works for women is a health service that works for everyone.

Jackie Baillie MSP is Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson

Editor’s note: This article previously stated that 30 per cent of young women reported that their health was either ‘good’ or ‘very good’. In fact, that figure related to those who said their health was ‘very good’. The Scotsman apologises for the error.