Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 4 April 2025 to Question 42370, what progress NHS England has made in developing metrics to assess timely access to care and outcomes for women with suspected endometriosis; and when those metrics are expected to be finalised.

NHS England is progressing work to collect metrics on endometriosis through its wider women’s health data improvement and reporting programme. As a starting point, NHS England is establishing which measures can be collected in a consistent and quantifiable way across the system. This includes investigating whether diagnosis is the optimum measure of timely access for women with suspected endometriosis or whether an alternative metric based on data that is or can be reliably and consistently collected would give a more accurate picture of access and outcomes. This work will inform how endometriosis is reflected in national reporting as the data improvement programme develops.

Women who receive a hospital diagnosis of endometriosis will have this coded accordingly, and this data can in principle be extracted, but it is not routinely reported. A diagnosis of endometriosis does not currently link to time to referral, and referral reasons for gynaecological conditions are not routinely reported.

NHS England is working to improve the reportability and data capture of pelvic pain diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes, which includes endometriosis. Before any metrics or outcome measures can be implemented, it is necessary to ensure that data is being captured consistently and in a reportable way across the country.

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy commits to speeding up diagnosis and access to treatment for conditions including endometriosis where women experience unacceptably long delays to diagnosis, pain being dismissed, and fragmented care.

Clinical pathways for heavy periods and pelvic pain, including endometriosis, will be redesigned to reduce repeat appointments, unnecessary referrals, and long waits.

Women with endometriosis also will benefit from single points of access for gynaecology referrals and a shift away from hospital only care towards neighbourhood and community settings.

Menstrual problems, including those caused by endometriosis, are prioritised as one of the first pathways to be delivered through community-based services and the new virtual hospital, NHS Online.