Hansard

I am very confident that we will make progress on the issue. I join with all the members who have contributed in recognising the barriers to receiving support and the long waiting times for diagnosis. We are absolutely committed to reducing the time to diagnosis and ensuring that the best possible advice and support are available for women throughout the diagnostic process.

We have been taking positive steps to improve the diagnosis and wait times. I am pleased to share that a new endometriosis care pathway is being developed by the modernising patient pathways programme, adapted from the NICE guidelines for endometriosis. That pathway will support healthcare professionals to recognise the symptoms of endometriosis and will provide a timely standardised referral care pathway for women with suspected endometriosis to secondary and tertiary care for those who need it. The pathway will enable women to be more informed and empowered to make choices about treatment and management. Alongside the pathway, Endometriosis UK is developing a leaflet to explain the process for diagnosis, which will be available online and for GPs to give to patients who have symptoms of endometriosis but have not yet received a diagnosis.

We recognise that reducing the time to diagnosis is not, by itself, an effective measure or demonstration of improved health and wellbeing outcomes. We will continue to work closely with Endometriosis UK and Public Health Scotland to analyse the data to help to indicate the reasons for blockages to treatment and support at primary care level. As Rachael Hamilton mentioned, in order to establish a baseline to measure progress that will be meaningful for all women and their families, Endometriosis UK is producing a report that will provide an overview of the data on service provision in Scotland and make recommendations. I look forward to receiving the findings of that report, which will be available shortly, and I give members my assurance that those findings will be acted on.

I want to pause for a moment to pay tribute to Sir David Amess, who was the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on endometriosis from the time that he launched it in 2018. He worked tirelessly to raise awareness and improve services for those living with the condition. His dedication and determination during his time as chair led the APPG to undertake an inquiry on the improvements that need to be made to ensure that those with endometriosis receive the care and support that they deserve. The actions in our women’s health plan reflect those recommendations. We are aligned in our vision to drive down diagnosis times and to improve access to care.

I assure members that work is going on to deliver the actions in the women’s health plan and to take the necessary steps forward to improve health outcomes for women. We will soon convene the first meeting of the women’s health plan implementation programme board. To ensure that progress is achieved at pace, a detailed implementation plan will be published by spring this year, and the first progress report will be published in autumn this year. Importantly, we will continue our lived experience engagement to ensure that women’s voices and experiences shape the implementation of the plan.

We will strengthen collaboration across the regional specialist endometriosis centres and will use those hubs to support local delivery across health boards. We will continue to build collaborative relationships with endometriosis third sector organisations and support groups in order to help to deliver the women’s health plan actions. We will work with Public Health Scotland and partners to analyse the available quantitative data to allow us to identify the gaps in national data and where improvement is required.

While being mindful of the impact that the pandemic continues to have on health boards, we will gather local qualitative data to help us to understand immediate pressures on waiting times for out-patient and in-patient endometriosis care. We will continue to support the implementation of the endometriosis care pathway and we will explore opportunities to partner with Endometriosis UK and other lived experience groups to raise awareness and consider ways to support the diverse needs of people with endometriosis.

I will close the debate by thanking those who have contributed to it. I am listening. We have taken positive steps, but I know that there is still a great deal more to do. I assure members that we will continue to work with our partners to implement the actions in the women’s health plan and to bring about real and transformational change for women with endometriosis. I end by thanking those with lived experience who have helped us to shape the actions in the women’s health plan and who continue to share their stories with us, so helping us and everyone out there to understand what we could achieve within the lifetime of the plan.