Recommendation 43

HM Government · verbatim extract Deferred

We are committed to moving towards a neighbourhood health service, with more care delivered in local communities, to identify and address problems earlier and closer to home. Women’s health hubs are an example of this approach and can play a key role in delivering the government’s manifesto commitments on tackling long NHS waiting lists, as well as shifting care into the community. We have heard evidence from ICSs on the positive impacts that women`s health hubs have on both women’s access to care in the community and their experience. The published Women’s health hubs: cost benefit analysis demonstrated £5 benefits for every £1 spent on women’s health hubs. ICBs are responsible for commissioning services that meet the healthcare needs of their local population, and they have the freedom to do so - this includes women’s health hubs. The core specification for women’s health hubs (linked in the government response to ‘Recommendation 3’ in ‘Public understanding of reproductive health conditions’ above) encourages ICBs to consider providing ultrasound and other diagnostic or treatment procedures in their women’s health hubs. Many women’s health hubs have access to ultrasound facilities, but their use also depends on capacity and expertise to perform scans. As a result of our pilot, women’s health hubs have been established in 9 in 10 ICSs , and the government has no plans to close them. Reporting from ICBs to NHS England shows that the pilot funding is being used to open or expand a total of 88 hubs. As of December 2024, 80 of these hubs were operational. Women’s health hubs have a key role in shifting care out of hospitals and reducing gynaecology waiting lists, and we continue to engage with and encourage ICBs to use the learning from the women’s health hubs pilots to improve local delivery of services to women. The government remains committed to improving women’s health and we are working with NHS England on how we take forward the Women’s Health Strategy for England (linked in ‘Introduction’ above) by aligning it to the missions and forthcoming 10 Year Health Plan. We are acting on the findings of Lord Darzi’s Independent investigation of the NHS in England and are reducing the number of national targets in the NHS planning guidance from 32 last year to 18 this year. This will allow local NHS leaders to make the best choices to meet the needs of their local population.