MNHQ here: we need your help - Change NHS Consultation

[RhiannonEMumsnet]

Hi there,

Lots of you will have seen that the Department of Health is currently running a public consultation called Change NHS, which is designed to feed into the government’s new 10 year plan for the Health Service.

We’re planning to submit an organisational response highlighting the many issues related to women’s health that Mumsnetters have raised with us over the years, including - but not limited to - experiences of maternity care and birth trauma, menopause, accessing contraception, and diagnosis and treatment of gynaecological conditions.

If there’s anything else you feel we should be covering, or you’d like to share your personal experience with regards to any of the above issues, then please do let us know via this thread.

Thanks,
MNHQ

GP services.
The current model of GP as independent profit making businesses doesn’t work and hasn’t been changed since the inception of NHS.
One solution would be to incorporate GPs and practice staff into the NHS as salaried employees within walk-in urgent care centres, with access to diagnostics on site, some of which are readily available now. A much better 24hr service could be offered with access to X-rays etc as now. Current surgery buildings could be sold.
GPs would be more accountable and better CPD and training available rather than the ad hoc training at the moment.
Seems to me it would be better for patients, GPs and staff.

Why does it take 7 or is it 8 years now and umpteen visits to the GP, to get endometriosis diagnosed?

Why do GPs apparently have so little knowledge of the symptoms? Even GPs supposedly specialising in gynaecological problems seem to have no idea either. Women GPs have no empathy at all. DD was repeatedly told the pain she was experiencing was normal period pain, all women suffer; or it must be her low pain threshold, when I had never seen a woman in my life, in the pain she was. All the other symptoms were dismissed as anxiety. Yet a consultant gynaecologist didn’t say any of this - he diagnosed pelvic endometriosis within 10 minutes, and removed extensive endometriosis old and new.

I can’t imagine men being treated like this for years? (DH gets sent for a MRI scan at the drop of a hat!)

Post birth care - via GP is non existent for women and concerns are dismissed.
Doctor's not reading the notes and then giving dangerous advice around childbirth.
Different doctors giving different advice.
Dismissive and harsh attitudes of some midwives.
Push to not have a c section.
Long waits
Mandatory time off for partners to attend appointments in pregnancy, particularly when there are stressful complications.
More time off for partners for premature babies that have to spend more time in hospital.

But:
Amazing midwives
Amazing doctors
Great vaccination programmes
So many hard working and caring staff in the system.
More breaks for staff who are often exhausted.

It needs to stop treating women like shit and actually believe them when they say something.

Yes women need equality in healthcare.

Women's pain needs to be taken as seriously as men's pain.

Funding for both services and research into conditions that mainly or exclusively affect women needs parity.

We have needed more doctors and nurses for decades now and still have not solved this problem. We need to stop raising healthcare staff from poorer countries and create an environment where people from the UK want to work in healthcare and find it a good environment to work in with decent working conditions.

Women are not small men and the nhs needs to continue to recognise that.

There should be some form of regular mandatory assessment of GPs to make sure they are fit for purpose.

There needs to be healthcare 24/7. It's no good taking a women in for a scan at 2pm and that department shuts at 6pm and is fully booked so she's there overnight for no good reason.

There need to be chemists open 24/7 so when you get a prescription from nhs24 you have some way to get it asap

There should be some form of crèche for mothers to leave their children so they can attend their appointment alone.

Reinstate the conversion college courses that enable foreign fully qualified nurses to prove their capability to work in the U.K. This would increase staffing.

Yes, improving children’s diagnostics. Specifically relating to things like sepsis.

There are too many stories being fobbed off repeatedly by doctors and told ‘it’s just a virus’ when they don’t really know/ haven’t taken time to do a thorough assessment. Possibly this could be improved by things like throat swabs, easy access to emergency appointments, training in bias/sexism for all doctors to get rid of their underlying assumption that all mums are hysterical, a paper trail where doctors have to record their decision making so it is clear whether or not they have considered the risk of sepsis/other serious illnesses, giving parents the power to demand an actual diagnosis via blood testing e.g - if it’s ‘just a virus, which virus? Find out.

This is something I have personal experience of unfortunately. I don’t want to go into too much detail as it’s very outing but my daughter saw multiple GPs and was taken to two different A and E’s and we were fobbed off with ‘just a virus’ by each until I refused to leave until blood tests were done. She had a very serious illness.

Oh, and diagnosing of ADHD and autism in girls needs serious looking at. They are much less likely to have issues noticed in school/be put on the pathway as they rarely make their issues other people’s problem - unlike boys.

I'd just like to add the importance of single sex spaces - particularly wards - along with the points you're already raising MN.

Single-sex wards are important. One male-who-identies-as-a-woman on a supposedly female-only ward makes it mixed sex, whether or not he’s got a GRC. The constitution needs to be clear that sex means biological sex.

NHS needs to state that there are only 2 sexes and that you can’t change sex. Stop gender identity theory in the NHS and pretending men can become women. This destroys women’s safety, dignity and privacy.

Better post menopausal care . My doctor didn't even realise I had gone through the menopause and had no clue about the problems. Better listening for women. Being told by a female GP that horrendous heavy periods are " just part of being a woman, get used to it" does not make the patient feel any better

Issues around discrimination/ political bias/ gender ideology in the NHS- please advise by PM if you need further evidence links for any of the issues raised below, as I've only attached a few.

• single sex wards, loos etc (for patients and staff) and changing rooms for staff www.personneltoday.com/hr/nhs-nurses-meet-wes-streeting-over-single-sex-changing-rooms/
• failure to respect consent and same sex care

https://www.caringaboutdignity.org/tag/your-stories/ and https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/news/2014/nov/not-providing-same-sex-carers-can-impact-dignity-says-ombudsman

• Lots of examples here:www.caringaboutdignity.org/about/
• this is also impacted by NHS Trusts refusing to accurately record the sex of staff or patients https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/gender-identity-ideology-in-the-nhs/

and www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/09/nhs-patients-discrimination-transgender-staff/ (which also potentially harms pregnant women who say they are men)

• failing to safeguard mothers/ babies from men with sexual fetishes and failure to follow requirements for evidence based care for mothers/ babies when men say they are women ('chestfeeding men' scandal)https://childrenoftransitioners.org/2024/02/22/safeguarding-concerns-in-the-nhs/
• failing to adhere to UK court judgements regarding mothers and fathers and the welfare of their children - this impacts children of 'transmen' like Freddie McConnell (who lost her legal case) as well as children with fathers who say they are women in the NHS childrenoftransitioners.org/2023/04/10/paperwork/

• language- using offensive, dehumanising or poorly understand terms for women (eg menstruators, people who bleed, birthers ) in order not to offend transpeople/ men who say they are women - but not for men - penis havers/ ejaculators)
• Political, religious and ideological discrimination eg against those who do not hold the same political/ ideological/ religious beliefs as equality staff and NHS leadership writing policies/ training courses
• eg creating a hostile environment for many people who are gender critical (who are often women/ girls) both staff and patients -with trans posters/ zebra crossings/ marches /flags/ badges
• this hostile environment is both traumatising and a safeguarding risk , particularly traumatising for female victims of abuse by trans identified men- how can women/ children in this group report abuse to NHS staff? https://transcrimeuk.com/
• trying to force staff and patients to lie males are women (eg with pronouns and through equality training), threatening patients/ staff who do not agree that men are women if they say so and cannot consent to mixed sex wards/ care with removal from care through NHS policies ( this targets not only GC women but also religious minorities and those who believe in material reality).
• huge amounts of sexual abuse of female patients by male staff and patients https://www.womensrights.network/hospital-report and https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/its-massive-scandal-just-waiting-break
• there are also some issues I have read online (but don't have stats for) about the NHS funding surgery (such as breast implants, the usual surgery requested by men who say they are women) to meet their fantasies, but refusing surgery for women (eg breast reductions or implants) for women due to cost constraints who have back ache due to large breasts , have had cancer surgery etc.

Seconding this post.

Bumping as there hasn't been much notice taken of this MN HQ request.

Breast cancer, biggest killer of middle aged women in UK, but no tests before hrt, hard to get referral for anything but a lump when lobular is not picked up until stage 3 when becomes a lump. Lobular breast cancer 50 percent of time does not show on mammo or ultrasound but women who have had lobular breast cancer are given this as follow up screening method and denied MRI. Meaning not detected again until stage 3 when chemo needed. Delayed reconstruction after breast cancer with women left for years with one breast chopped off, with no mental health support and subject to multiple cancellations and refusal to put on waiting lists to artificially make look lower.

Children's camhs will only help children after a suicide attempt and anything else is ignored, impossible to get a timely autism assessment which leads to sn support being denied for years, endless children with sn are receiving no education at all in this country and ending up neet with mothers having to stop work to deal with this. Then these kids go into mental health crisis as written off by everyone but their families and health bill if hospitalised is £5k a week, education could have been provided for a fraction of this.

Take Early Pregnancy seriously.

I say this, whilst lying in a ward, waiting to be treated for a ectopic pregnancy that I discovered myself.

Why aren’t women seen as soon as they find out they’re pregnant? Why aren’t baseline bloods taken and repeated? Why is it so hard to get taken seriously when experiencing spotting? Why are women left to resorting to buying ridiculous, inaccurate cheap tests online, just to see whether something in their body is progressing as it should be? I could go on. I’ve experienced every single one of these examples.

Early pregnancy and miscarriage needs to brought to the forefront. Too many women are just left to deal with it alone and deteriorating their mental health at the same time.

I was not due to see a midwife until I was nearly 10 weeks pregnant and would not have been scanned for the first time until well after that. It is too long to wait. I had minor spotting which is typical of early pregnancy but had to push for a scan which showed it was in the wrong place. What could’ve happened if I had believed the basic, inane NHS guidance on spotting in early pregnancy? I could have died. Something needs to improve for women in this stage of pregnancy or suffering a miscarriage. I’ve suffered two and have never been offered any investigation. It’s just not right.

The threads on new mums not getting support to breastfeed their babies and handwaved away, only to then have to bring their starving babies to hospital, we mind blowing. Midwives saying they are not allowed to suggest formula even if there are problems breastfeeding.

I'm an advocate of breastfeeding but not at all costs. It's hard and needs proper support.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/5178382-has-this-happened-to-you-breastfeeding-support-led-my-baby-to-hospital

I agree with the person who proposed improving GP services including bringing them into the NHS properly. So many people are not even trying to make appointments, which means their issues may (or may not) just get worse, leading to chronic and acute illnesses presenting later on at a much later phase, and being more complex and expensive to treat, with all the add on impacts that has to employment, the care sector as well.

Plus prioritise sorting out the Dental service instead of just endlessly consulting- we know what's wrong, it needs a plan to fix it, not asking what isn't working.

Men are listened too, women are not, Men get every test going - rapidly - if they see a gp but a woman with the same symptoms get nothing. Yes I know that men can be sicker at the same age but the man was fine in a couple of weeks and the woman still is not well (and has still had no NHS tests).

Stop telling women symptoms are all in their head or down to depression. "long covid" had to be given a different name to MS/CFE because more men got it, it's still a post viral illness.

The sex difference in pay in health care is bigger than in most professions - why and what is the government going to do about it? www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o1748