Women’s Health Strategy: Endometriosis and Fibroids

Olly Glover Excerpts

Thursday 5th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ms Abena Oppong-Asare (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab)]

Endometriosis, fibroids and related gynaecological conditions ruin the lives of millions of women, yet these conditions remain undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, dismissed or mistreated within the health system. Women are told to shut up and stop complaining. We are fobbed off. We experience shameful delays. We are left in pain. My argument today is simple. We need the forthcoming women’s health strategy to address these conditions head-on, listen to women, tackle the taboos, and create timely and effective treatment.

One in 10 women suffer from endometriosis. It is a painful, debilitating condition, found in every community, workplace and family. That statistic means that at least 20 women Members in this current Parliament could be suffering from endometriosis. Despite being widespread, it remains misunderstood and dismissed, yet it ruins women’s ability to learn, earn, have sex, have children and live a normal, healthy life. It destroys mental health. In recent years, there has been greater awareness and a wider discussion of the impact of the condition, led by public figures such as the BBC’s Emma Barnett, and sparked by this year’s BAFTA-winning short film, “This Is Endometriosis”, which I hope to host a screening of in Parliament soon. In this House, I commend the great work of the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on endometriosis, my hon. Friend the Member for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan), and the Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen).

Millions of women, however, are still being failed by the NHS and wider society. There is still a lack of appreciation of the true nature of the disease, a lack of suitable support throughout the worlds of education and work, and stigma associated with the symptoms, which include heavy bleeding and intense, blinding pain. The average wait for diagnosis is nine years and four months, according to the latest report, launched this week, by the charity Endometriosis UK. The report highlights that diagnosis times are getting worse, not better. March is Endometriosis Action Month. It is vital that we use this opportunity to act now for the benefit of those suffering today, and those who will suffer long into the future. Sadly, even with a diagnosis, there is no cure—just pain management.

[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for taking time for this intervention on her passionate speech about the huge number of women who suffer from endometriosis. Given the challenges with diagnosis, and the enormous pain and suffering that she has outlined, does she agree that far more money and Government support need to go into research, so that we can better understand this condition and how to diagnose and treat it?

[Ms Oppong-Asare]

It is nice to have a male ally in the Chamber—in fact, a few male allies. I think the issue is even wider than that. The Government are looking to publish the women’s health strategy quite soon. I will talk about this in more detail, but the data on the delays is already out there. We need to recognise the signs and make sure that people get the help they need. I will talk in detail about some of the work I have done, particularly in my constituency, to highlight the issue.

It has been often said, though it is worth repeating, that if these conditions were suffered by one in 10 men, there would be research into a cure, fast diagnosis, effective treatment, time off work, and a sympathetic, understanding reaction from all other men. If only women got the same reaction at work, or in the health system. Endometriosis UK found that 39% of its respondents had to visit the GP 10 or more times before endometriosis was suspected, and 46% were sent home from hospital without treatment. That is simply outrageous. To respond to what the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover) said, people are visiting GPs repeatedly before the condition is recognised.

When I surveyed my constituents, one told me:

“I had to go to my GP three times and leave an utterly desperate comment begging for help until they took me seriously.”

Another said:

“It was a condition I had never even heard of until it started to affect me.”

And another said the

“pain was so excruciating that it felt worse than birth pain”.

That is just so common. That is the experience of millions of women down the decades. Women of colour suffer the double whammy of facing misogyny in the NHS, as well as the racism that tells us that we have a higher pain threshold, or that “black women can handle it.” The recent interim report on maternity services by Baroness Amos last week highlighted the structural racism in the NHS, which leads to worse health outcomes for women of colour. The Endometriosis UK report says that for women of colour, the average wait for diagnosis is now 11 years. That is a grave injustice. This is not just a question of equitable health provision, but a question of social justice for women.

It of course makes no sense for the NHS, with stretched resources and overworked staff, to have millions of women who repeatedly present with their symptoms being sent away, returning in pain, and making complaints for years on end. Getting it right first time matters. I welcome the new NHS Online, a virtual hospital in England due to launch in 2027. Menstrual health conditions, including endometriosis, will be one of the priority areas. The NHS Online hospital will use the NHS app to triage patients and provide fast access to specialist clinicians online. Where needed, specialists will be able to arrange local testing for women. I invite the Minister to comment further on how NHS Online will help women with these conditions.

The forthcoming women’s health strategy affords us a huge opportunity to move forward. I know the Minister will not be divulging its contents to the House today, and that we have to wait to read the strategy in full, but both the Minister and her ministerial colleague in the other place, who is responsible for women’s health, get it. She knows that a range of conditions affecting so many millions must be front and centre in the strategy. The strategy must address early diagnosis and faster, effective treatment. It must tackle the stigma and taboos. Most of all, it must address the way that doctors are trained, so that endometriosis, fibroids and similar conditions are identified fast. We have made great progress in the early identification of sepsis, for example. We must do the same for endometriosis and fibroids.

Will the Minister give us an assurance that training for doctors will form a key part of the strategy? Will she work with the Royal College of GPs and NHS training providers to ensure that these conditions are central to the syllabus, and that every newly qualified doctor has the knowledge to identify endometriosis when a woman presents with the symptoms? Early diagnosis means early treatment, and that saves a huge amount of pain, dismay and taxpayers’ cash down the line. It really is a common-sense approach, given the huge number of women involved.

I long for the day when we have a cure. With proper medical research, which the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage alluded to, I am sure that day will come. In the meantime, does the Minister agree that women should not be waiting for years in unnecessary pain, and that the women’s health strategy can and must offer women in pain a real sense of hope?

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Olly Glover Excerpts

Thursday 26th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for introducing the debate and for her enormous dedication and hard work on this vital issue over many years.

I would like to talk about the themes that have arisen from constituency cases that my team and I have encountered and supported. The key concern is not the clinical aspects of care but the delay and fragmentation of the ownership of care. Life-threatening conditions can drift. Gaining access to care, support and treatment often involves a Kafkaesque labyrinth of dysfunctional process and procedure, and referrals and re-referrals between a range of teams in the complicated organisation that the NHS is. We need independent specialist assessments, safe interim arrangements, and timely and accountable co-ordination of care.

Some people wait more than eight months for an answer either way regarding whether they are eligible for treatment under the current criteria. That can further compromise their confidence in coming forward and asking for support. It can have a huge personal cost, impacting people’s ability to drive or work, reducing life expectancy and creating long-term medical complications, which add to wider pressures on the NHS. As in other debates that we have about healthcare in this country, this issue highlights an area where, if we get the start of the process right with early, preventive interventions, we will be able to help individuals and alleviate some of the pressure on critical care services.

[Wera Hobhouse]

It is worth mentioning again that if a person with an eating disorder does not get treatment, it takes them three times as long as they have been suffering to recover. If they have suffered from an eating disorder for three years, it takes them nine years to fully recover. We know from other health services that early intervention is key, but it is particularly important for eating disorders because the longer they are left, the much longer the recovery process is. Some people never recover and it is a life sentence.

[Olly Glover]

My hon. Friend again shows her wealth of knowledge and experience of this topic. Some of the cases that my team and I have supported have involved people who have been living with eating disorders for decades. I have also seen cases where the transition from support services for children and young people into those for adults has been managed badly. That is not unique to eating disorders; it is a wider issue in mental health provision.

As we have heard, eating disorders can have a devastating impact. They rob people of years of life, wipe out adolescence, remove educational and social opportunities, and leave many isolated and unable to cope. Eating disorders are one of the deadliest mental health conditions and constitute a significant health crisis. Cases of eating disorders have surged, with hospital admissions doubling in a decade. It is a huge concern, in the face of that crisis, that eating disorder services are being cut in much of the country. Over half of the country’s integrated care boards have cut real-terms spending on children’s eating disorder services in the last financial year.

I am proud of the leadership that parliamentarians such as my hon. Friend the Member for Bath and Baroness Parminter in the other place have shown on this issue, including working with campaign groups such as Dump the Scales. The scandal of people being told that they are “not thin enough” for medical help must end. Far too many people cannot access the services they need.

I welcome recent guidance from NHS England on how to design eating disorder services to support children and young people better, but we need to do more than tinker around the edges with updated guidance. We need a meaningful national strategy to transform these services, with more specialist support, and we need to build a culture across the health service and beyond that recognises the complexities of eating disorders and the terrible dangers they pose.

Lending urgency to that is the fact that the target of 95% of urgent cases receiving treatment within a week, and routine cases receiving it within four weeks, is routinely being missed. From September to November last year, only 78% of urgent referrals and 82% of routine referrals started treatment within the target timeframe. That is why I am very happy to support a wider Liberal Democrat campaign for investment in community health services and prevention, including better specialist support for people with eating disorders. As we heard from my hon. Friend, early intervention can greatly reduce the number of people who are suffering.

We are also campaigning for regular mental health check-ups—the concept of a mental health MOT—at key points in people’s lives when they are most vulnerable to mental ill health. Like others who have spoken, I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response. So many people are suffering, and lots of people are trying to help—that is not the issue. We need to make the overall system work much better, with all its different component parts working towards the goal of supporting people.

Budget Resolutions

Olly Glover Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

I think everybody in this Chamber and in this House can agree that we need economic growth, but many question whether the Budget will really help with that. It prolongs Conservative underhand tactics, such as tax threshold freezes, which will have a comparable impact to more honest and up-front tax rises.

Small businesses in my constituency, including Love Beer Brewery in Milton, Ridgeway Cycles and the Vaults in Wantage, the Crown in Chilton and the George at Upton, are extremely worried, in some cases existentially so, about the impact of poorly thought-through business rate changes, which come on top of growing energy costs. As a result, the Liberal Democrats’ proposed 5% VAT cut for pubs and restaurants is badly needed.

The Budget is largely silent on some of the big picture strategic themes we need. A key one is change to the planning system. I know the Government agree, but we need far more real and meaningful changes that go beyond scapegoating newts and bats. Instead, we need a planning system that delivers social and genuinely affordable housing—not just blunt housing targets irrespective of how affordable those houses will be—primary healthcare that people can actually access and which will help more people to get jobs, and investment in transport to boost mobility and reduce congestion. It is not just me who says that about the need for genuinely affordable housing. Didcot B power station in my constituency cites the cost of housing as the biggest barrier it faces in retaining staff.

In my constituency, we have the tedious, multi-decade saga—it will not be a Netflix hit any time soon—of trying to get a GP surgery built in the new housing estate of Didcot Great Western Park. There is a comparable risk of a similar saga affecting a Wallingford GP surgery’s plans to expand. Didcot and Wallingford have both seen significant housing and population growth. Despite similar population growth in Wantage and Grove, there is as yet no clear Government support for a new railway station serving it on the nearby Great Western main line, and Cholsey station continues to lack accessibility improvements.

Constituents understandably clamour for more large-scale leisure facilities, such as swimming pools and leisure centres, which are very difficult to fund using section 106 contributions alone. The Government’s getting moving on social care reform, rather than yet another review, which will last the entire Parliament, would help with productivity.

My Oxfordshire constituency has a lot of potential to build on its strengths, particularly with so much exciting space, fusion, biotech, and many other science and technology contributions to the local and national economy, such as at Harwell campus, Milton Park and Culham. Many of those have already been slowed down by the consequences of Brexit, and businesses are concerned about some of the Government’s rhetoric on migration, which they feel could affect their ability to attract the vital international talent they need to succeed.

Overall, this Budget has injected despair rather than optimism. My constituents and their businesses need the Government to do better.

Oral Answers to Questions

Olly Glover Excerpts

Tuesday 21st October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

11. What recent steps he has taken to increase access to GP appointments.

[Michelle Welsh (Sherwood Forest) (Lab)]

13. What steps his Department is taking to improve patient access to GPs.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting)]

We strengthened the NHS front door with £1.2 billion for general practice, the biggest cash increase in over a decade. We promised to recruit an extra 1,000 GPs in our first year—we recruited 2,000. Patients are now able to request appointments online, which is a huge step towards delivering our manifesto commitment to end the 8 am scramble.

[Olly Glover]

Great Western Park has added 3,000 homes to Didcot, in my Oxfordshire constituency, and Valley Park, which is under construction, will add 4,000 more. However, the new GP surgery promised in 2008 remains a barren patch of land and existing facilities cannot cope. The integrated care board is supportive, but progress has stalled due to NHS England’s involvement. Does the Secretary of State agree with me that integrated care boards should have the authority to direct primary care funding, and will he meet me to help to unblock the new GP surgery my constituents desperately need?

[Wes Streeting]

Let me come back to the hon. Gentleman after I have found out what has gone wrong in this case. As he points out, ICBs are responsible for commissioning, planning, securing and monitoring GP services within their health system, through delegated responsibility from NHS England, and capital is allocated to ICBs on a basis that takes account of annual population growth. I can understand his frustration and that of his constituents, so let me find out what has gone wrong and come back to him.

NHS 10-Year Plan

Olly Glover Excerpts

Thursday 3rd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I can absolutely give my hon. Friend that assurance. The great opportunity for technology is that we can design in accessibility; I had a great meeting here with some of my constituents who suffer from hearing loss. We have a great opportunity for the NHS to once again be the great social leveller, providing quality care to everyone, whatever their background, and personalised care that meets their needs. We need to have better digital connectivity and AI-enabled hospitals. My hon. Friend’s constituents will know how hard she bangs the drum here for investment in her local hospital, and that is very much on my mind.

[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and his previous answer on dentistry, but I will push him a little further. My constituency, along with all of Oxfordshire, is an NHS dental desert. Having met with dental providers, they say that the key to changing that is reforming the NHS dental contract. I note that the 10-year plan includes a commitment to doing that, but no timescales are provided. Can the Secretary of State enlighten the House?

[Wes Streeting]

Yes, I certainly can. The proposals we are consulting on represent an important step towards the fundamental reform to the dental contract that we committed to in our manifesto, and that will begin this year. There are no perfect payment models. Careful consideration needs to be given to any potential changes in a complex dental system so that we deliver genuine improvements for patients and the profession, but we are committed to working with the British Dental Association. The Minister for Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Aberafan Maesteg (Stephen Kinnock), is working hard to fix the mess left by the previous Government.

Access to Primary Healthcare

Olly Glover Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) on introducing this debate. I echo her call on the Government to boost access to GPs, NHS dentists and community pharmacists. In my Oxfordshire constituency, the growing number of people moving into the area has not been matched by an increase in GP, dentist or pharmacy services. Indeed, frustration with the terrible Conservative track record on these health issues was a major factor in my election to this place in July.

In Great Western Park in Didcot, where more than 5,000 people now live, there lies a site ready to be developed into a GP surgery, and there is money from the developers to build it. However, the local NHS body responsible for building it and providing the doctors, nurses and other support staff sadly has struggled to marshal the resources to do so. I call on the Government to prioritise supporting NHS bodies and to provide the mechanisms for bringing forward primary healthcare.

Meanwhile, many people in my constituency, particularly in Didcot, often cannot see a GP without the early morning telephone rush that my colleagues have articulately summarised, hoping to get one of the precious slots. At the GP surgery in Didcot at which I am registered, it is even a challenge to get an online appointment, with a two-minute window granted once a week to try to fill in an e-consult form—a process that generally defeats me for non-urgent matters.

Like my colleagues, I hear from dentists in my constituency that the funding they receive for their NHS patients is barely enough to break even. It is no wonder that private dentistry dominates in my constituency, from Wallingford to Grove, Wantage and Didcot. As my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers) articulated, mental health services—particularly child and adolescent services—are also under strain.

All of these services need better support, so I call on the Government to take action and recognise that, as Lord Darzi said in his report, improving access to primary healthcare will significantly relieve pressure on A&E and, indeed, the need for cancer treatment by enabling earlier diagnosis and therefore proactive intervention.

Oral Answers to Questions

Olly Glover Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Karin Smyth]

My hon. Friend is right to raise the crisis of midwifery services. We have already had debates in Westminster Hall about this, and the issue affects the entire country. It is a priority for this Government, and I am of course happy to meet her to discuss her constituency issue.

[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

T8. Lord Darzi’s report highlighted the importance of local focus and alignment to co-ordinating local services and improving health, contributing to reduced hospital admissions. In Oxfordshire, the integrated care board is proposing to remove Oxfordshire’s dedicated place director. Will the Secretary of State give his support to place- based roles to maintain local authority alignment, as recommended in Lord Darzi’s report?

[Wes Streeting]

I absolutely take the point the hon. Gentleman is making about the importance of place-based leadership. That is why one thing we will be looking to do, as part of the 10-year plan process, is to clarify roles and responsibilities in different parts of the system to ensure that we have better strategic place-based leadership.