Girls’s healthcare within the UK is worse than in some international locations with poor information on equality, together with Saudi Arabia and China, a ballot has discovered.
The UK has ranked decrease than most comparable Western international locations, together with the US, Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany, within the 2021 Hologic World Girls’s Well being Index revealed at present.
Analysts blamed this on British ladies struggling to entry preventive care, resembling most cancers screening, in addition to analysis for causes of ache and psychological well being help.
The UK scored simply 60 out of 100 – three factors decrease than final 12 months – within the index, which relies on a survey of greater than 127,000 individuals worldwide by analytics agency Gallup. This locations it on a par with Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Kosovo and Poland. Eire additionally scored 60 factors.
The UK has ranked decrease than most comparable Western international locations together with the US, Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany
Whereas the worldwide common was decrease at simply 53 out of 100, most Western nations ranked larger than the UK, which was thirtieth on the checklist of 122 international locations and territories. Taiwan was high, scoring 70, and Afghanistan backside with 22.
The Authorities has been accused of ‘constantly deprioritising’ ladies’s well being after it was reported in December that gynaecology ready occasions in England had tripled in a decade. On common, ladies now wait practically 4 months for a primary appointment with a gynaecologist – however practically 38,000 ladies in England have waited greater than a 12 months.
The UK’s rating for ladies’s emotional well being fell eight factors in a 12 months to 68. On preventive care, resembling most cancers and diabetes screening, the UK scored simply 23.
A separate Hologic survey of 10,000 individuals within the UK discovered one in 5 British ladies skilled ache each day however greater than 1 / 4 had not been capable of get a analysis in any respect. Some 15 per cent obtained one solely after eight or extra visits to healthcare professionals.
On preventive care, resembling most cancers and diabetes screening, the UK scored simply 23
Girls who suffered with ache wanted to see a physician 4.3 occasions on common earlier than the trigger was recognized. Dr Nighat Arif, a GP specialising in ladies’s well being, mentioned: ‘Sadly, usually [women’s pain is] seen as one thing to place up with, relatively than one thing you will get help for.
‘The explanations for ache in ladies are advanced, and for GPs, who’ve a restricted time for session, it may be tough to pinpoint a analysis in a single appointment.’
The Division of Well being mentioned: ‘We have put ladies’s well being on the high of the agenda by publishing the Girls’s Well being Technique for England, appointing the first-ever Girls’s Well being Ambassador and taking motion to extend provide and cut back the price of hormone alternative remedy.’
- Girls are being let down by the Authorities’s ‘glacial’ progress in making workplaces menopause-friendly, MPs warn. A report by the Girls and Equalities Committee known as for pressing motion, however ministers have rejected 5 of its suggestions, together with to pilot a selected menopause go away coverage, three and a half months late.
