We're sick to death of being patronised

ALL WEEK on my TV show, we've been running VHS - the Vanessa Health Service. There are no prizes for guessing why. Three quarters of a million women are on waiting lists enduring pain, humiliation, professional paralysis and interminable delay while what used to be called their "women problem" rage untreated.

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Our phone lines were inundated as women experiencing everything from breastfeeding problems, cancer and incontinence took advantage of a rare chance to talk to a doctor.

We've known for far too long our two-tiered NHS doles out a substandard service to women at every age and stage. Hit puberty and girls are subjected - sometimes by female doctors - to high-handed dismissal of acute and agonising symptoms which (and I choose my words carefully) means subjecting them to years of unremitting torture.