Debate contribution: Women’s Health Strategy

Debate contribution by Ms Claire Sugden on 16 March 2026.

MLA

Ms Claire Sugden

Party at the time

Independent

Date

16 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Women’s Health Strategy

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5449126

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I really appreciate everyone's contribution to the debate. I am heartened by the number of contributions from around the Chamber and the different perspectives, particularly those from many of the male contributors. I am particularly heartened by Timothy's contribution. The analogy that he drew with the 15-mile queue is quite sobering. If any of us were to stand in a queue of even half that length, we would raise questions about it. What is happening in Northern Ireland on women's health is shameful. Sadly, it is not a new issue. As Members have said, the issue was raised two years ago, and here we are, two years later, with promises of a women's action plan, not necessarily a women's health strategy, despite other jurisdictions in the UK and Ireland having one. I appreciate that the Minister is not here: I considered not moving the motion, but, as an independent Member, I only get two shots at a motion in a mandate. I thought that it would be good to at least put the issues on record and follow-up where we need to. The Minister anticipated that he would not be here. He wrote to me, and I will talk to what he said in his letter. His party colleague Alan Chambers represented some of what he might have said, such as that we do not need shiny documents or strategies. The purpose of a strategy is to join the dots, to look at the issue in a way that will save our health system some money and ensure that the life course of women is much more the way that it needs to be. I will give you an example. At age 16, women are offered a contraceptive called Depo-Provera, which weakens bone health. At that age, they are given something that, when they reach 70 or 80 years of age, will have a detrimental impact on their life. At 16 years old, they do not get to have those conversations about what might happen later in life. That is why a women's health strategy is important. What we do at 16 has an impact later in life. At my age — 39 — I think that some of the decisions that I made at 16, 17 or 18 might have been different had I been given information that I was not given at those ages. I cannot stress the importance of looking at a strategy as being not just a shiny document but a method for women's health. We cannot consider each stage of a woman's life separately: it flows because of our hormones and because what happens to us at 16 affects what happens to us at 39, 49 and 59. That is why this is so important, why every other jurisdiction on these islands has done something about it, and we why we are failing by not doing something about it.

I appreciate that point, and it is important that we put those things on record and do not let the mistakes of the past be repeated. That is what we are at risk of doing if we do not take this issue seriously. Having sat in the Chamber for nearly 12 years, I know that we regularly hear about these issues, but nothing changes. The motion is about not just the document but its measures being costed, transparency and holding the Minister to account on what, ultimately, is his responsibility. I have no doubt that we will not get this strategy within 12 months. I put that ask out there because I do not think it unreasonable to expect it. I was a Minister in Government, and I know that, if the Health Minister wanted to do this, he could. It could be done very quickly: Ministers certainly do things when it suits them. It is important to have this conversation to put pressure on the Minister and the wider Northern Ireland Executive: they all sit around the Executive table, and they could be having these conversations. However, to be fair to the Minister, in anticipation of this debate, he wrote to me last week to say that he would not be available because he is in Washington today. He acknowledged many of the issues that Members have raised. He referenced disparities in women's health outcomes, pressures on services and the need to improve support across a range of areas, including menopause, endometriosis and perinatal mental health.

As I said, the acknowledgement is important; however, acknowledging the issue and addressing it are not the same thing. The Minister's letter to me also referred to the women's health action plan and the development of a strategic framework, yet the progress remains unclear, as other Members have said. I do not sit on the Health Committee, but I imagine that those who do are not aware of the progress that has been made either. What funding has been attached to the work? To be honest, none of the work will progress if there is no money. Crucially, what is the timeline? That is why the motion calls for clarity and asks for:

"a detailed update to the Assembly on the status, funding and implementation of the action plan"

and the development of:

"a fully costed and time-bound women’s health strategy".

The other important point that I wanted to include in the motion is that we should consider whether the current system meets our equality obligations under section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act. Section 75 requires public authorities to have:

"due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity".

Given the disparities in women's health outcomes and access to services that we have discussed today, it is entirely reasonable to ask whether the current approach meets our obligations. I appreciate that other Members have talked to that, and Nuala McAllister gave an example about the treatment of vasectomy versus childbirth. After I had my daughter, my husband was not allowed to visit me. I had to care for the newborn baby even though I might have had only half an hour's sleep, yet we recommend that men put their feet up. Absolutely, they should do that, but, when you have given birth, you need that and more. I will reference some of the contributions. Órlaithí Flynn talked about transvaginal mesh, and that issue has rumbled on for such a long time. Many Members will have constituents who have suffered with that, and the issue will come and go and be resolved, but the pain that those women suffer because of scar tissue and other problems will not. We are not giving the issue the attention that it needs, certainly not the follow-up issue, particularly if those women are stuck on waiting lists like everyone else. Endometriosis was mentioned a lot. Diane Dodds talked about women having to wait 10 years, which is extraordinary. Endometriosis is incredibly painful, and it is not just young women who suffer from it but women of all ages up to menopausal age. What are we doing if we are not supporting the people who need the health service? The mother-and-baby unit is another issue that has rumbled on, and that is not acceptable. It is inconceivable that a mother would be separated from her baby, particularly at a traumatic time. I appreciate that Members have raised issues, and we could talk all day about those issues, but we should not do that: we should just get the work done. When the Health Minister comes back, we should follow up with him to ensure that the work happens, and we should hold him and his predecessor to account for the promises that they have made. The motion refers to the stakeholders and the people whom the issue affects. I appreciate the women's group in Derry that looked at the issues. It will form part of the women's action plan, but, again, we need to talk to girls, mothers, perimenopausal women, menopausal women and older women. We need to support women who are past the point of menopause, and we can forget that, even in this debate. Over the past year, I have worked on the issue of osteoporosis. Our services are shockingly bad. I have challenged the Minister about his approach to osteoporosis, because we are not providing a service to most of the people who have osteoporosis, who are mainly older women. To me, that is an equality issue. Linda Dillon said that people are needlessly dying, and that is sad and shameful. It comes back to the point that we should not assume that women's health is just about gynaecology, pregnancy and menopause. It is also about all the health problems that men also suffer from, but women do not get the support that they need, because the services were designed by men. I could talk about women's health all day. We should continue to talk about it. If this debate happens again in a number of months, that will be important. Until we see action and get to a point where we start to serve half the population in the way that we are here to do, we need to keep talking.

1,537 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:13 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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