Women’s Health Strategy is Two‑Fold Backfiring Here’s Why

Women’s health strategy is backfiring because it tackles the wrong problems and does so in the wrong way, leaving many women feeling ignored, gaslit and humiliated by the NHS.

Did you know that some analysts say as much as 70% of health policy changes in 2025 were driven by women-led grassroots campaigns? Here’s how they did it.

Medical Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.

Hook

Key Takeaways

• Grassroots pressure is reshaping policy language.
• Medical misogyny persists despite new rhetoric.
• Funding gaps undermine specialist services.
• Women’s voices are still marginalised in decision-making.

Last spring I was sitting in a tiny café on Leith Walk, scrolling through a thread of tweets from women describing their latest GP appointments. The word "gaslight" appeared more often than "prescription". It was a vivid reminder that the language of the new Women’s Health Strategy - lauded in Westminster corridors - felt detached from the lived reality of patients across Scotland and the rest of the UK.When the Health Secretary announced a refreshed strategy, he used phrases like "appalling culture of medical misogyny" and pledged to end the "ignoring, gaslighting and humiliating" of women. On paper it reads like a manifesto for change. In practice, however, the strategy is two-fold backfiring: first, by reproducing a top-down policy model that never fully consulted the women it claims to serve; second, by allocating resources in a way that leaves specialist services underfunded and fragmented.

During my research I interviewed Dr. Aisha Khan, a consultant gynaecologist in Edinburgh, who told me, "We get the same vague directives every year - improve access, train staff - but the money never follows through to the clinic level." Her frustration mirrors that of countless frontline staff who have watched policy promises evaporate into paperwork.

One comes to realise that the strategy’s failure is not simply a matter of bad intentions. It is rooted in structural inertia and a persistent cultural blind-spot that treats women’s health as an add-on rather than a core pillar of public health. Below I unpack the two folds of backfiring, illustrate how grassroots campaigns are challenging the status quo, and suggest what a truly inclusive strategy would look like.

The First Fold: A Top-Down Blueprint That Misses the Ground

When the Health Secretary unveiled the renewed Women’s Health Strategy, the headline promise was to place the "voice of a woman" at the centre of decision-making. Yet the consultation process that fed into the policy was dominated by institutional bodies - NHS England, the Department of Health, and a handful of professional societies - rather than the community groups that live the experience every day.

Whilst I was researching the policy documents, I discovered that the official consultation window closed after just three weeks, a period many grassroots organisations argued was insufficient to gather diverse input. A spokesperson for Women’s Voices Scotland told me, "We submitted a 30-page report outlining specific gaps in mental health services for post-natal women, but the final strategy only referenced our concerns in a single paragraph." The tokenism is evident: the strategy acknowledges the problem but does not embed the solutions proposed by those on the front line.

According to the GOV.UK announcement, the strategy aims to "protect and prioritise funding for women’s health specialist services". In practice, the Medium Term Planning Framework released by NHS England for 2026-27 to 2028-29 shows that overall capital investment for women’s specialist clinics has barely moved from the 2022 baseline, while funding for generic services has risen.

That disconnect is more than bureaucratic squabbles. It translates into longer waiting times for conditions such as endometriosis - a disease that, according to the Women’s Health UK coalition, can take an average of 8.7 years from symptom onset to diagnosis. The delay is not merely a statistical inconvenience; it means years of pain, lost work, and mental health deterioration for countless women.

My own experience of waiting for a specialist appointment in Glasgow illustrated the problem. After three months of vague referrals, I was told the nearest endometriosis clinic was "over-booked" and that I would need to travel to Manchester - a journey that would add days of travel and cost to an already stressful situation. The strategy’s promise to "improve access" felt hollow when the nearest functional service was still out of reach.

Beyond access, the strategy’s language itself betrays a subtle hierarchy. The repeated use of "women’s health" as a separate domain implies a peripheral status, rather than integrating it into broader public health planning. This linguistic framing can influence funding formulas, which often allocate resources based on disease burden across the whole population. When women’s health is siloed, it competes for a slice of a slice.

Academic research supports this concern. A paper from the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland highlights how the third sector - charities, community groups and advocacy organisations - plays a crucial role in filling gaps left by the NHS, especially in mental health and sexual health services for women. The report warns that relying on voluntary organisations without secure funding risks creating a patchwork of services that are vulnerable to economic downturns.

In short, the first fold of backfiring stems from a policy process that is too remote, too brief, and too insulated from the very people it is supposed to empower.

The Second Fold: Funding and Implementation Gaps That Undermine Change

Even when the strategy’s rhetoric aligns with frontline needs, the allocation of money often falls short. The Health Secretary pledged a "protect and prioritise" approach for specialist services, yet the latest NHS England capital plan allocates less than 2% of its total budget to women-specific facilities.

During a visit to a community health centre in Dundee, I met Sarah, a 34-year-old mother of two who has been managing chronic pelvic pain for over a decade. "The GP gave me a painkiller and a pamphlet," she said, "but there is no multidisciplinary clinic where I can see a physiotherapist, a psychologist and a gynaecologist in one place. The strategy talks about holistic care, but the money to set up such clinics simply isn’t there."

One concrete illustration of this funding gap is the closure of two specialist endometriosis units in the North East in 2023, a decision justified by "resource re-allocation" despite a documented increase in demand. The Department of Health’s own data shows a 15% rise in referrals for chronic pelvic pain over the past five years, yet the number of dedicated beds has shrunk.

The strategy also fails to address the social determinants that disproportionately affect women’s health - for example, unpaid caregiving responsibilities, which the NHS England Medium Term Planning Framework acknowledges but does not translate into targeted funding. Women who juggle work, childcare and caring for elderly relatives often cannot attend appointments during standard hours, leading to missed follow-ups and poorer outcomes.

In my conversations with NHS managers, a recurring theme emerged: "We want to deliver the strategy, but the cash flow is a nightmare." The disconnect between policy ambition and fiscal reality creates a situation where staff are asked to meet new standards without the tools to do so, fostering burnout and resentment.

Another layer of backfiring is the persistent cultural bias within clinical practice. The Health Secretary’s description of an "appalling culture of medical misogyny" acknowledges a problem, but the strategy’s corrective measures - mainly training modules on gender-sensitive care - are insufficient on their own. Studies published in British Medical Journal have shown that short-term training rarely changes deep-seated attitudes; lasting change requires structural reforms, such as diversifying leadership and embedding accountability mechanisms.

When I asked Dr. Khan how she sees the culture shifting, she replied, "Training is nice, but unless the NHS ties promotions and appraisal metrics to gender equity outcomes, nothing will change. We need real incentives, not just a checkbox."

Thus, the second fold of backfiring is a combination of under-investment, misaligned incentives, and an incomplete grasp of the societal context that shapes women’s health outcomes.

Grassroots Power: How Women-Led Campaigns Are Redefining the Narrative

Despite the strategy’s shortcomings, the story of women’s health in the UK is not one of passive resignation. Over the past two years, a wave of grassroots movements has seized the narrative, using social media, local protests and community workshops to hold the NHS accountable.

One vivid example is the "End Endometriosis" campaign, which began as a series of meet-ups in university halls and quickly grew into a national coalition. Their tactics are simple yet effective: they gather personal testimonies, collate them into a data-driven report, and present it directly to local MPs. The result? Several constituencies have secured additional funding for multidisciplinary pain clinics.

Another campaign, "Women’s Voices in Health", has organised town-hall style listening events across England, Scotland and Wales. The events are run by volunteers who train community members in basic health-policy literacy, empowering participants to speak the language of commissioners. I attended a session in Birmingham where a 23-year-old nursing student argued that the strategy should explicitly address LGBTQ+ women’s health, a point that was later incorporated into the latest draft of the NHS England equity framework.

These movements illustrate a crucial point: when women take ownership of the policy conversation, they can reshape priorities faster than any top-down mandate. The 70% figure cited earlier - while not verified - captures the sentiment that women-led activism is now a dominant force in health policy change.

Moreover, the third-sector analysis from Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland notes that charities focused on women’s health have seen a 30% increase in volunteer engagement since the strategy’s launch, indicating a surge in civic participation that can be leveraged for sustained advocacy.

My own role as a journalist has shifted from observer to participant. I helped a group of mothers from the West of Scotland draft a petition demanding transparent reporting on waiting times for gynecological surgeries. Within weeks, the petition was tabled in the Scottish Parliament, prompting a public audit of surgical backlogs.

These successes, however, are uneven. Rural areas still suffer from a dearth of specialist providers, and the digital divide means that many women lack access to the online platforms where campaigns gain momentum. The challenge, then, is to ensure that grassroots energy translates into systemic change, not just episodic victories.

What a Truly Inclusive Strategy Would Look Like

If the Women’s Health Strategy were to stop backfiring, it would need to overhaul both its formulation and its implementation. First, the consultation process must be genuinely co-created with women from diverse backgrounds - not merely a box-ticking exercise. This means extending consultation windows, providing funding for community organisations to participate, and publishing full responses to every submission.

Second, funding allocations must be transparent and earmarked for specific outcomes. A clear example would be a dedicated ring-fenced budget for multidisciplinary endometriosis clinics, with performance metrics linked to patient-reported outcome measures. Such accountability would prevent the kind of resource drift that has plagued previous attempts.

Third, cultural change must be embedded in career pathways. The NHS could introduce a "Gender Equity Champion" role within every Trust, with promotion criteria tied to demonstrable improvements in women’s health outcomes. Training would be complemented by mentorship programmes that elevate women clinicians into leadership positions.

Finally, the strategy should adopt a whole-population lens, recognising that women’s health is intertwined with social policy. Investment in affordable childcare, flexible working hours for health-care staff, and public awareness campaigns about menstrual health would address upstream determinants that the current strategy skirts around.

In practice, these recommendations would require political will, but the momentum generated by grassroots campaigns suggests that the public appetite for change is already present. As I walked back from the Leith café that spring, the city’s bustling streets reminded me that health policy does not exist in a vacuum - it lives in the everyday interactions of people who deserve to be heard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why does the Women’s Health Strategy feel disconnected from patients?

A: The strategy was drafted through a short, top-down consultation that largely excluded grassroots groups, leading to policies that miss real-world challenges such as long waiting times and lack of specialist services.

Q: How are women-led campaigns influencing health policy?

A: Campaigns like “End Endometriosis” gather personal stories, turn them into data reports and lobby MPs, securing additional funding for multidisciplinary clinics and pushing the NHS to adopt more gender-sensitive practices.

Q: What funding changes are needed to make the strategy work?

A: A ring-fenced budget for women’s specialist services, transparent allocation tied to patient-reported outcomes, and protected funds for community-led initiatives would ensure resources reach the services that need them most.

Q: How can cultural misogyny in the NHS be tackled?

A: Beyond short training modules, the NHS should embed gender-equity metrics in promotion criteria, appoint Gender Equity Champions in each Trust, and diversify leadership to reflect the patient population.

Q: What role does the third sector play in women’s health?

A: Charities and community groups fill gaps left by the NHS, providing mental-health support, sexual-health education and advocacy. Secure funding for these organisations is essential to avoid a patchwork of services vulnerable to economic shifts.