Maree Todd, Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport, told parliament good progress has been made in delivering commitments from the Women’s Health Plan but a year on, the central coordinating role of Women’s Health Champion remains unfilled, and concerns have been raised that the plan’s implementation has been slow.

As the Scottish parliament returned from its summer recess, the First Minister delivered this year’s programme for government, announcing that a Women’s Health Champion will be appointed within the next 12 months. However, this was expected to be delivered by the end of summer, following the First Minister’s pledge to parliament in June.

Nicola Sturgeon declared that this year the government will “take forward a range of actions to improve women’s access to healthcare” alongside appointing a Women’s Health Champion and safeguarding access to abortion services.

What is the Women’s Health Plan?

The women’s health plan, published in August of 2021 and the first of its kind in the UK, commits to improving health outcomes for women and girls. Ms Todd says the plan is not only about reproductive health but also aims to “reduce avoidable health inequalities” across the lifespan – particularly areas that are stigmatised, disregarded or dismissed as ‘women’s problems’.

Compiled by a large team of contributors, including healthcare professionals, lived experience representatives, researchers and people working in the third, the plan outlines 66 key actions to be taken across the course of this parliament. These span from improving diagnosis time for endometriosis – which 1 in 10 women in Scotland are thought to experience – to establishing a Women’s Health Research Fund and developing a community pharmacy service.

Where are we now for women’s health in Scotland?

In some ways, progress on women’s health has been made with Scotland being the first country in the world to legislate for free period products in education and workplaces  This places duties on local authorities and education providers to ensure “everyone in Scotland who mensurates can have reasonably convenient access to period products, free of charge” whenever required.

Another example is the establishment of a central platform for information on women’s health can be accessed on NHS Inform Scotland, with sections for each age group. 

However, Ms Todd faced criticism last week for not yet delivering a Women’s Health Champion, which she had previously committed to do by the end of summer. This sentiment was reiterated in a BBC interview this August, where she said:

“We said that we would appoint over summer, we’ve made substantial progress on that appointment and we will appoint over summer.”

When questioned if the appointment would be made soon, as it was “already mid-August”, Ms Todd confirmed, but now it is almost a month on, and no appointment has been made. A total of 17 Scottish charities have now written to Ms Todd urging her to appoint a Women’s Health Champion and to encourage more health boards to appoint a women’s lead. Currently just three of Scotland’s 14 health boards have nominated someone to coordinate regional improvements.

Carol Mochan, Deputy Spokesperson on Women’s Health for Labour, said that though she welcomed the Women’s Health Plan, progress has been too slow:

“So there's been a year of limbo, no leadership, no progress and no action.

“I was delighted that the Women's Health Plan was put in place and anything that we move towards a better service for women is obviously very important, but we can see that it is just a snail's pace.”

In parliament earlier this month, Ms Mochan raised her concerns over the government’s slow progress, adding that a Women’s Health Champion for Scotland is essential to spearheading policy and advocacy work on menopause.

Ms Todd echoed the sentiment made in August, that the appointment process is almost complete, saying:

“I expect to be able to make an announcement about the appointee very soon. As I have reiterated many times, that was a medium-term commitment in “Women’s Health Plan”. We have met all our short-term commitments in the plan, and we are making progress on many of the medium-term commitments that we made.”

Delivery of some short-term commitments in the plan, such as seeking lived experience contributions to ensure women are “meaningfully involved in decision-making” and that good practice is shared in primary care, are difficult to track and monitor. However, others like a dedicated NHS Inform platform have clearly been completed.

While the plan was first published in August 2021, the Women’s Health Implementation Programme group only met for the first time on the 25^th of January 2022 whereafter they committed to meet quarterly.

Within the plan, there is a pledge to report annually on the progress, with Ms Todd informing parliament that the first progress report will be published in autumn this year. A formal implementation report is expected to be published in 2024-25 to assess the report’s impact and lessons to take forward.

Read more: Breast screenings for over-71s to restart; Deprivation remains key factor in young pregnancies;GPs back abortion protest buffer zones bill

Sign up to our bulletin for key health & social care updates straight to your inbox.