Debate contribution: Women's Health Strategy

Debate contribution by Mr Alan Chambers on 13 February 2024.

MLA

Mr Alan Chambers

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

13 February 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Women's Health Strategy

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4206224

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I take the opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment to your new role in the Chamber. I commend those who tabled the motion for bringing this important topic to the Chamber today. A fact that I often find staggering is that, although women in the UK, on average, live longer than their male counterparts, women spend a far greater proportion of their lives in ill health and disability. That is not just a quirk or a coincidence; there are big and important reasons behind it. For far too long, women-specific health issues were often either ignored or openly disregarded. Certainly, it seems that, until only fairly recent times, the issue of women's health received much less public attention and discussion than it deserved. With such advances in science and understanding, as well as in modern medicine and treatments, there should be no taboo subjects in 2024. As has been said, women make up 51% of the population, yet, as a man, I freely accept that there remains a misunderstanding — perhaps better described as a lack of understanding — of some really important issues. That includes not only the menopause and menopause symptoms but a slate of other issues. I would be the first to acknowledge that more awareness is needed by me and many of my male peers to highlight just how severely the issues can impact on a woman's life. There have been so many changes over the past 50-odd years, and, thankfully, the contribution made by women to society and to the economy is now better recognised and celebrated, especially compared with how it was so overlooked in years past. Of course, there is much more that could be done. There are not just perceived barriers to better women's health but actual obstacles. The recent Getting It Right First Time report was really important in highlighting the measures necessary to improve access to gynaecology services. Similarly, whilst some really important progress has been made in recent times on broadening fertility support, as well as critical investment in the likes of perinatal mental health, I think that we can all agree that there is more to be done. With so many problems already weighing down on our health service, we can scarcely afford to be making the situation any worse. Yet, that is exactly what is happening with such profound health and social inequalities. Those inequalities sometimes directly contribute to high unplanned pregnancy rates, a clear gender gap in cardiovascular outcomes, poor maternal outcomes and high obesity rates, to name just a few. The case for a women's health strategy is well made. Listening to the media last week, I was reassured by the commitment of the Health Minister to move at pace in that regard. The development of an action plan will immediately focus minds and should deliver progress now in the areas where that is possible, while the development of a much higher-level and more strategic women's health strategy runs in parallel. I suspect that there will be broad political unanimity in the Chamber for the motion, and we should all welcome that. In particular, I suspect that there is also unanimity in the need to adopt a whole-life-course approach, a phrase that, I suspect, we will start to hear more of in the Chamber. Our health service belongs to us all, so it goes without saying that it must also serve us all. Particularly, that must see the fundamental principle of equal access to treatment, prioritised on the basis of clinical need and not of either personal circumstances or gender. Therefore, I and my party fully support the motion and the amendment before the House today. I look forward to seeing work on the action plan and the strategy getting under way soon.

634 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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