Women deserve to get best healthcare we have to offer

WOMEN live longer than men, but they live more of their lives in ill-health and research has revealed a gender divide in healthcare.

- Geeta Nargund

The Create Health Foundation, which I run, recently commissioned one of the biggest surveys of its kind, asking thousands of women to relate their experiences as patients. Sadly, it highlighted a crisis of confidence among many women in the care they receive from parts of the NHS.

One in three women aged 18-34 and 40% aged 35-54 who visited an A&E department about a women's health condition felt they were not listened to by staff.

One respondent suffered symptoms of endometriosis for 23 years, variously dismissed as stress, anxiety, IBS and shingles. When she was finally diagnosed with adenomyosis it had progressed to Stage 4. She waited a further four years for treatment, resulting in the loss of her ovaries at the age of 44.

As a result of this lack of con-fidence, a significant percentage of women, especially those under 34, have gone private for gynaecological and fertility treatments.