Debate contribution: Women's Health Strategy

Debate contribution by Mrs Linda Dillon on 13 February 2024.

MLA: Mrs Linda Dillon
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 13 February 2024
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Women's Health Strategy
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4206188

Text

I thank the Members for bringing the motion to the Assembly today, and I welcome the opportunity to speak to the issue. The fact that we have to call for a women's health strategy in 2024 is far from ideal, but I am glad that we are finally getting to the point of having not only the conversation but, hopefully, the opportunity to implement a strategy. I know that the Department has already been doing work, even in the absence of the Assembly. I was given that reassurance by the permanent secretary in the meetings that I had with him prior to the Assembly being restored. I thank our MLA Órlaithí Flynn, who is chairperson of the all-party group on women's health. She has kept a strong focus on the issues facing women and their health. Órlaithí has hosted excellent events and speakers to give us the detailed information and the uncomfortable truths about the gaps in services for women in many areas of our health service. We have heard from health professionals, women with lived experience and the amazing charities that support women, including Menopause Support NI, endometriosis support groups and the Heart Failure Warriors group, which will be here next week for all MLAs to drop in and have a chat. I thank our male colleagues across the Chamber who supported the recent event in the Long Gallery and for donning the MenoVest to highlight just some of the symptoms — I stress that they are just some of the symptoms — of the menopause.
That support is very welcome, as inequalities in women's healthcare impact on us all. There is a cost to women, their families, society and our entire economy. It is everyone's responsibility to tackle those inequalities.
I am aware that, when we talk about women's health, people think that we are talking about gynaecological health. If we want to truly make a difference to the health outcomes for and the quality of life of women, we need to ensure that all areas of health where inequality exists are included. It is for that reason that we tabled the amendment. I am glad to hear that the proposer of the motion will support our amendment, and I hope that all MLAs across the Chamber will support it. A reduction in the gender gap in cardiovascular outcomes must be included in any women's health strategy. There are significant gaps in awareness, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease in women. Heart disease is, in fact, the leading cause of death for women in the North. Approximately 26,000 women here are living with heart disease. It kills twice as many women as breast cancer. In 2022, almost 2,000 women died from heart and circulatory diseases in the North, with 334 of those deaths resulting from heart attack. A heart attack is a medical emergency. As we all know, timely, effective treatment is critical. However, research that was funded by the British Heart Foundation has found that women are less likely to receive guideline-indicated care and that more women than men die following a heart attack. Women are 50% more likely than men to be misdiagnosed or to receive a delayed diagnosis following a heart attack, and they are more likely than men to exhibit longer delays in seeking medical care after the development of symptoms that are suggestive of a heart attack. We can probably attribute that not only to social bias but to the lack of awareness, education and understanding among men and women and in our medical profession, because most of the research on the issue was done on men. We need to make sure that that changes. Women are dying needlessly from heart disease because our health system has failed to recognise and address the lack of awareness, the misdiagnosis and the delays in getting appropriate treatment. The new Assembly and our new Health Minister have an opportunity to turn that around, to do better and to deliver for women who are being failed by the health system. I will address some other areas in the motion around women's healthcare and the serious challenges in accessing services and treatment. As a 47-year-old, post-menopausal woman — I am not afraid to say my age, because I still think that I am younger — I have experienced at first hand the gaps in services and treatment and the gaps in basic information and advice about how the menopause can affect you. I was only 40 when my menopause began. I decided that I would tough it out, get through the hot flushes and get to the other end of it and that I would do it without HRT. However, that was due to ignorance about what I was going through. It was due to a lack of understanding of and basic advice around the subject. Last year, I sat at an event in St Joseph's College in Coalisland and listened to Dr Declan Quinn speak. That presentation gave me more information in half an hour than I had had in my whole 47 years of life. That tells us all that we need to know about the information and advice that are out there for women. My big concern was that, although I knew that I had been through the hot flushes and three or four years of not being able to sleep, I did not know that the brain fog that I was experiencing was due to the menopause. I did not know that it was impacting on my bones. The first thing that I did the next morning was contact my GP about starting HRT. I am very glad that I did, because, as I said, I feel young. I want to feel as young as I can and be as mobile and independent as I can for as long as I can. We need to ensure —.
Absolutely.
Absolutely. That is one of the reasons why I decided to speak here about my experience. It is like anything else: if we do not talk about it, we will not educate our daughters and the other young women who come after us. It is important that we speak about it and normalise the conversation around it. I have talked about the support that women give women, but I have to say that men around us have given us great support. It is not that men did not want to be supportive; they just did not know how to be. That is why we need to talk about it. We need more education. On that note, education around menopause needs to be included in our curriculum. My daughter is taught in school about periods and pregnancy, but not about menopause. As the Member who spoke previously outlined, the education in relation to menstruation is, quite frankly, inadequate and, in many cases, too late. We need more age-appropriate education around women's health. We are almost entirely reliant on other women and the fantastic work being carried out by charities, like Menopause NI, to offer advice and support around the menopause. Unfortunately, our health service is sadly lacking. It is likewise lacking in diagnosis and treatment for women and girls who suffer with endometriosis. Again, lack of awareness, delayed diagnosis and lack of access to appropriate treatment means that women suffer needlessly. This is an extremely painful and debilitating disease that can result in limited mobility, regular episodes of violent vomiting and extreme, life-altering pain. Just yesterday, I spoke with a strong, intelligent, motivated woman from my constituency. Anne, who had to be medically retired as a result of endometriosis, openly offered to help and support others who have been diagnosed or await diagnosis, and to speak to MLAs about her experience to help them understand how this terrible disease can impact on women and girls. She is determined to do what she can to ensure that services are improved. However, Anne should not have to fight. That is what we are here to do; that is what we were elected to do. That is why it is so important that the Health Minister gives leadership on the issue, and that he works with health professionals, the community and voluntary sector, charities, support groups and women with lived experience to develop an action plan that is properly resourced, in order to ensure that it can be implemented fully and create the real change that is required. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. An abundance of work has been done by many different sectors, and the answers are out there. We just need a formulated plan that is properly resourced. We can look at the other plans that have already been developed across these islands. I have spoken with many health professionals who share our concerns about the inequality in women's healthcare and want to play their part in shaping better treatment and health outcomes for women and girls. As I said at the outset, we have waited much too long to see this, but I believe that we have in place a Health Minister who wants to work with us, and we certainly want to work with him. As Committee members, we will hold him to account on a women's health strategy. I hope that we will see that come forward in the very near future. It is very appropriate that we have the Nothing About Us Without Us group here today. It is no coincidence that these issues are coming to light as there are more women on the Floor of the Chamber. The right decisions will not be made for women unless women are in the rooms where the decisions are taken.

1,618 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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