Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of access to specialist gynaecological services for women.

We know that women deserve better, which is why we are delivering our commitment that women’s health will never be neglected again. We are committed to improving waiting times for diagnosis and treatment so women can get the care they need sooner, including specialist gynaecological care.

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, published in April 2026, committed to several actions to improve access to care for gynaecological conditions including menopause and endometriosis. These include commitments to redesign clinical pathways for the most common clinical pathways such as heavy periods, menopause, and uro-gynaecology. These redesigned pathways will create roadmaps for health systems to use and adapt for local needs that will enable women to move more quickly through the system and reach the level of care they need with fewer appointments, and will support integrated care boards to introduce a single point of access for all non-urgent referrals to gynaecology and women’s health services to speed up access to better treatment.

Menstrual problems, including those caused by endometriosis and menopause, are prioritised as the first pathways to be delivered through community-based services and the new virtual hospital, NHS Online. NHS Online will give people on certain pathways the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. It will connect patients with clinicians across the country through secure, online appointments accessed through the NHS App.

For women with severe endometriosis, NHS England commissions specialised services through 61 accredited hospitals contracted to deliver care in line with the current service specification. These are accredited by the British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy. A revised specification is progressing through NHS governance and commissioning processes, ahead of consideration by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group in 2026/27. The revised specification will introduce a networked model of care to ensure all patients with endometriosis have access to clinicians with appropriate expertise, including through primary care, community services, and secondary care settings.

This will improve the standards of care for women with severe endometriosis by ensuring specialist endometriosis services have access to the most up-to-date evidence and advice.