Open letter on women’s and sexual health backed by nurses
Nurses are among the signatories on an open letter to the government calling for improvements to sexual and reproductive healthcare, particularly for women.
The letter is addressed to the new health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, and asks him to follow through on the Labour Party’s general election manifesto commitment to “prioritise women’s health”.
Written by Dr Janet Barter, president of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), the letter is endorsed by around 800 clinicians and 60 organisations with an interest in this field.
Among the signatories are the Royal College of Nursing as well as dozens of individual nursing professionals such as sexual health nurses, practice nurses and gynaecology nurses.
The letter highlighted to Mr Streeting the “shocking health inequalities women and girls currently face across the UK”.
It warned how women from the most deprived backgrounds are almost three times more likely to have abortions than the wealthiest and teenage pregnancies in England and Wales are rising.
It further reminded Mr Streeting how Black women are almost four times more likely to die in the perinatal period than White women and cervical screening uptake is below target.
The FSRH is therefore asking Mr Streeting to back its Hatfield Vision Manifesto, which sets out a list of policy demands that it believes will boost women’s health and sexual and reproductive healthcare.
The five demands are:
- Introduce a dedicated sexual and reproductive health strategy and commit to continuing the former government’s women’s health strategy;
- Improve access to contraceptives;
- Make reliable information on sexual and reproductive health accessible to all;
- Tackle sexual and reproductive health disparities faced by women from minority ethnic backgrounds;
- Ensure training posts for community sexual and reproductive health roles are fully funded.
FSRH president Dr Barter said the inequalities facing women and girls were “unacceptable but importantly preventable with the right policies in place”.
“This is why we were very pleased to see the Labour Party’s commitment in their manifesto that women’s health would ‘never again be neglected’ by government and that it will be prioritised as they reform the NHS,” she added.
“We know that reproductive health is a fundamental part of women’s health and must be central to the government’s plans in this area.”
The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.
