Women’s Health Strategy Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Barry Gardiner
Main Page: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)Department Debates - View all Barry Gardiner's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(1 day, 15 hours ago)
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Karin Smyth
The hon. Lady makes the point about using targets. This is something that is a high priority, but it is not happening. That is absolutely why I mentioned it in my opening comments—to ensure that that happens.
Barry Gardiner (Brent West) (Lab)
Forty years ago this month, my wife almost died of an eclamptic seizure because a general practitioner had failed to recognise the symptoms of pre-eclampsia. According to the most recent report on pre-eclampsia, four times as many women are dying of pre-eclampsia today than were dying in 2012. That is an absolute disgrace. If men got pre-eclampsia, they would have solved the problem many, many years ago. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] Will the Minister assure me and everyone else that the women’s health strategy will focus on pre-eclampsia, and try to finally find a solution?
Karin Smyth
My hon. Friend makes a very powerful case and talks of an experience that he and his wife went through forty years ago, which highlights that it can sometimes take an unacceptably long time to get what is known as good practice through the system and to have that consistency for women and their families across the overall system. We absolutely need to ensure that maternity services understand best practice and that it is rolled out properly across the country.