Turning ambition into impact: Why delivery is the real test for the renewed Women’s Health Strategy

This article has been funded and developed by Besins Healthcare UK Ltd.

Image credit: iStock

Why this strategy matters now

The renewed Women’s Health Strategy (WHS) for England 2026 offers an opportunity to advance health equality, with success depending on measurable improvements in healthcare for women. The WHS has been broadly welcomed, and it’s encouraging to see a shift towards greater government accountability and listening to women’s lived experiences. [1,2] Recent political changes, including the appointment of Andy Burnham as Prime Minister and Yvette Cooper as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, bring renewed focus to NHS and social care reform. [3,4] This presents an opportunity to maintain momentum behind the strategy and translate its ambitions into meaningful improvements in women’s care and outcomes. Investing in women’s health is also an economic imperative, with evidence suggesting menopause-related unemployment alone may cost around £1.5 billion annually, plus additional costs from absenteeism and presenteeism. [5,6]

Ambition is necessary – but delivery is what women will feel in daily care. According to the Department of Health and Social Care, the renewed strategy must address regional disparities, provide ongoing resources and ensure practical implementation – especially when gynaecology wait lists are so substantial with over 565,000 women still waiting for gynaecological care. [1,7]

We also need to consider the renewed WHS through the lens of the NHS 10-Year Plan, whose shifts towards community-based care, digital access and prevention of ill health will succeed only if properly resourced, implemented at scale and grounded in women's real experiences. [7–11]

From recognition to real change

A key advance in the strategy is the explicit recognition of medical misogyny and the historical dismissal of women’s symptoms. [1,2] While identifying the problem is essential, recognition alone will not improve outcomes. Lasting progress needs sustained focus and practical implementation throughout the system, from primary to specialist care. [7]

The women’s voices partnership will benefit most when lived experience is integrated into service design and evaluation, rather than reserved for final consultation. [1,2] Through its work alongside the NHS, Besins Healthcare (UK) Ltd (BHUK) recognises the disconnect between policy intent and patient experience. Closing this gap calls for the improvement in pathways that remove access barriers and deliver fairer, more consistent outcomes.

We can see that the refreshed WHS calls for many positive recommendations. [1,2] I believe firmly in the opportunity for the women's health hubs as a core delivery model, and the redesign of clinical pathways to speed diagnosis and enhance treatment across women’s health is of paramount importance. [12] Workforce education and training across women’s health is also vital, including improving clinician understanding and management of women’s health conditions including menopause care. [12, 13] The ambition to reduce women’s health inequalities is also welcome, alongside plans to launch NHS Online ‘virtual hospital’ services in 2027 as a digital front door to care pathways, using digital tools to reduce waiting times, improve access, and make menopause one of the first pathways available. [1,2, 13]

Overall, we have seen broad support for the refreshed strategy and its goals, but several recurring criticisms need to be addressed – including that it provides limited detail on how services will be funded and staffed to deliver change, it leaves some implementation questions unanswered, and risks repeating the gap between ambition and delivery seen in previous initiatives.

Image credit: iStock

Menopause is a public health and workforce imperative

The strategy rightly sees menopause as more than a clinical issue. It is a public health and workforce imperative. Better support helps women protect their health and stay in work, reducing avoidable loss of experience. Redesigned pathways must work for all women, not just those already well connected to care. [5,6]

The strategy's explicit commitment to embedding menopause assessment within routine healthcare pathways, supported by greater use of data and patient-reported outcomes, creates a clear opportunity for integrated approaches that demonstrate value at system level, not just at the point of symptom control. [1,2]

In menopause care specifically, variation in access and treatment uptake can be influenced by deprivation, ethnicity and local service availability. [14]

I strongly support expanding access to menopause services through integrated community settings, such as women’s health hubs, alongside redesigning clinical pathways to improve diagnosis and treatment, and establishing a specialist centre in every NHS region.

Many voices have highlighted best practice across women’s health. For example, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women’s Health points to work by the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust together with the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, which improved menopause care by equipping GPs to manage a broader range of cases confidently in primary care, while preserving specialist services for complex cases. [15] These examples demonstrate proven approaches that could increase efficiencies and improve outcomes if implemented more widely.

Miscarriage and pregnancy loss: joined-up, compassionate care

The renewed strategy places greater emphasis on miscarriage and pregnancy loss, covering both clinical and emotional needs. [1] Fragmented care increases trauma. Women require clear, compassionate support and coordinated pathways, so no one is overlooked, particularly those facing barriers to timely care.[14, 16] Consistent access to early pregnancy units is essential to address the current variation in service availability, eligibility criteria and published opening hours that leaves too many women without timely support. [16]

There is an opportunity to improve outcomes through evidence-based service design. Tommy’s graded model shows that structured escalation, including support after a first miscarriage rather than waiting for a third, enables earlier identification of modifiable risk factors and treatable conditions, helping to standardise care and reduce avoidable harm. Developed by experts at Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research and tested in a pilot study at Birmingham Women's Hospital, the model has been shown to be feasible for NHS roll-out, restores dignity to miscarriage care and, ultimately could prevent 10,075 miscarriages per year if implemented across the UK. [17,18]

Image credit: iStock

Delivery depends on resourcing, accountability and partnership

The strategy’s framework provides a solid foundation, but achieving equity requires sustained funding and consistent implementation across all regions. [7] Without this, some areas will advance quickly while others fall behind. [2] Effective large-scale delivery depends on clear accountability, local support and consistent progress measurement. That includes linking women’s feedback to targeted improvements and provider funding, developing patient-reported experience and outcome measures to track experience and outcomes across core pathways. [1,2,7]

Our commitment

At BHUK, we recognise that delivering on the ambitions of the renewed Women's Health Strategy will require sustained, cross-sector collaboration and a willingness to work differently across the system. As a long-standing leader in hormone health, we are committed to playing a constructive role in that journey, bringing not only our expertise across women's health, from pregnancy maintenance to menopause, but also practical tools, insights and collaborative approaches that can support real change on the ground. We see our role as enablers by providing support to NHS leaders, clinicians and local partners with opportunities to enable the delivery of neighbourhood health level women's health services through collaborative working, pilots and sharing best practice. The opportunity now is to translate strategy into action, through supporting GP education in menopause care, partnering with ICBs on community pathway pilots, working with early pregnancy services to improve access and outcomes regarding the prevention of miscarriage in women with a history of recurrent miscarriage, and sharing best practice with ICBs and neighbourhood health teams. We believe we are well placed to collaborate with the healthcare system to help turn that ambition into meaningful, measurable improvements in women's health outcomes.

Disclosure: Irina Spirieva is General Manager at Besins Healthcare UK and Ireland, a supplier of hormone health therapies for men and women.

Job number: MAT-BHUK-NP-0891

Date of production: October 2026

References