Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to women that are more likely to live with a musculoskeletal condition.

The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health, and women’s equality will be at the heart of our missions. Women’s health hubs have a key role in shifting care out of hospitals and reducing gynaecology waiting lists. As of December 2024, 39 out of the 42 integrated care boards reported that they had a women’s health hub. Reporting from integrated care boards to NHS England shows that the pilot funding has been used to open or expand a total of 88 hubs.

The Government recognises that musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions disproportionately impact women, and we are working jointly with NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time team to deliver our MSK Community Delivery Programme to further reduce MSK community waiting times.

We also know that more than one in three women, compared to one in five men, will sustain one or more osteoporotic fractures in their lifetime. On 6 January 2025, NHS England published the new Elective Reform Plan. This set out funding to boost bone density scanning (DEXA) capacity, to support improvements in early diagnosis and bone health. This is expected to provide an estimated 29,000 extra scans per year once all are fully operational. DEXA scans are a vital component of the early diagnosis of osteoporosis.