Hansard

I begin by thanking the many organisations that have provided briefings for the debate. Health is one of the biggest issues in the minds of people across our country, and that is no less true for women, who have their own unique health challenges and needs.

The women’s health plan was first published in 2021 by the Scottish National Party Government. It set out to address women’s health inequalities and the serious barriers that were preventing women and girls from accessing the healthcare services and support that they needed.

The plan included 66 actions focusing on heart health, postnatal contraception, menopause, endometriosis, menstrual health, abortion, and contraception. We all know that women’s health needs such as those are present and evolve throughout each woman’s life, from adolescence to their later years and that, because each woman is different, health policy must be aimed at adopting an approach that accounts for the disparities and barriers that women face in accessing sufficient healthcare services.

In the SNP’s manifesto in 2021, several commitments were made to improving women’s health. Those commitments ranged from reducing endometriosis diagnosis waiting times and establishing a new Scottish institute for women’s health to improving access to services helping women through menopause diagnosis and management. I welcome the £250,000 of funding that the minister said is being provided to address endometriosis.

However, despite the SNP’s manifesto commitment and the women’s health plan, healthcare services, support, and—most importantly—health outcomes for women have shown a downward trend under 17 years of SNP mismanagement.

How are women being failed by the SNP Government? Let us simply look at the numbers for some of the most crucial areas in the women’s health discussion. There are on-going failures in addressing issues surrounding endometriosis, women’s heart health and cancer care, which have devastating impacts on the women that they affect.

For example, 58 per cent of women said that they saw their general practitioners 10 or more times prior to getting an endometriosis diagnosis because of symptoms, with 53 per cent also doing the same with accident and emergency visits. As my colleague Rachael Hamilton pointed out, even when a woman is finally diagnosed with endometriosis, it has taken an average of nearly nine years to get a diagnosis in Scotland. We are talking about women waiting almost a decade just to receive a proper diagnosis—that is not even including the time that it takes to begin treatment.

On the issue of women’s heart health, the situation is no better. The British Heart Foundation notes that 2,600 women die each year in Scotland from coronary heart disease. That makes coronary heart disease the single leading killer of women, even more so than breast cancer. Moreover, the charity Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland has found that, for every day that passes, there are 10 women who die from heart disease and heart attacks across Scotland. There are also 95,000 women across the country who are living with coronary heart disease.

I am highlighting those numbers at a time when waiting times for cardiology have hit record highs. That has resulted in fewer than three in 10 Scots being seen within the echocardiogram six-week waiting time target, with 1,200 people even being forced to wait more than a year for an ECG.

That brings me to the failures of the Scottish Government relating to women’s health and cancer numbers. Although it said in the women’s health plan progress report that it wanted to take an intersectional approach to account for each woman’s life in order to ensure the best outcomes, the truth is the opposite. Women from the most deprived areas across Scotland were less likely to get screenings for breast cancer in 2022-23 and for cervical cancer in 2021-22.

On the issue of breast cancer specifically, the charity Breast Cancer Now says that breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK, with almost 4,770 women being diagnosed annually. The charity also said that the Scottish Government women’s health plan was an opportunity to improve breast cancer outcomes through doing things such as reaching the 80 per cent screening targets for breast cancer and increasing breast awareness.

However, although the women’s health plan was an opportunity to help women overcome barriers and inequalities to receive the highest standards of care and support, that potential has not been fulfilled. The numbers are shameful and they continue into another area that has important effects on women’s health: alcohol consumption and misuse, which also impacts on breast cancer health outcomes for women.

According to Alcohol Focus Scotland, in Glasgow alone, 16 per cent of women drink more than the guidelines set out by chief medical officer. That has the potential to significantly affect women’s health in relation to developing certain types of cancers. Just drinking about a half pint of beer or a small glass of wine daily can increase a woman’s risk of developing pre-menopausal breast cancer by 5 per cent. For post-menopausal breast cancer, the increase is even greater, with the risk rising by 9 per cent. In addition, women often face barriers to accessing alcohol addiction support services, and a good deal of stigma remains around women who misuse alcohol.

Adding to that, in 2022-23 in Glasgow, only 26.5 per cent of people with learning disabilities who were eligible for cervical cancer screenings went to their appointments.

Unfortunately, that grim picture carries over to women’s life expectancy. Scottish women have seen that fall to a lower age than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 80.9 years from 2021 to 2023, compared with 81.1 years prior to 2021. In fact, not only is Scotland ranked lower than other nations in the UK for female life expectancy, it is now also ranked 22 out of 29 nations for female life expectancy Europe-wide, according to the National Records of Scotland.

The Scottish Government launched the women’s health plan 2021 to 2024 with the aim of tackling the health inequalities and poor health outcomes that women face and changing the approach that is taken to women’s health. The Scottish Government must acknowledge that the plan is now failing. Not only have the Government’s goals not been realised, women have paid the serious price for its long list of failures.

Going forward, achieving the mission of improving women’s health services, support and outcomes requires the involvement of all sections of society—private individuals, public bodies and individuals who are dedicated to helping address women’s health issues and inequalities. Just as importantly, women need to be heard, healthcare in Scotland needs to see women’s health issues as distinct, and each unique aspect of each woman’s life must be acknowledged and considered.

In my new role, I will work with colleagues from across the chamber and in the Scottish Government to ensure that women finally receive the services that they so desperately need to lead the fullest and healthiest lives that they can.

My colleagues Tess White and Brian Whittle will highlight some other areas, from menstruation and menopause to maternity and neonatal issues. I urge the Scottish Government to work with us to avoid those failures in the future on behalf of the women and girls across our country.

I move, as an amendment to motion S6M-15382, to leave out from “acknowledges” to end and insert:

“agrees that 17 years of Scottish National Party (SNP) administration mismanagement of healthcare in Scotland has worsened longstanding health inequalities faced by women and girls, while challenges facing women’s health services continue to go unaddressed; notes that thousands of women across Scotland have missed out on life-saving screenings for breast and cervical cancer, and that some breast cancer screening centres are at risk of being downgraded or closed entirely under drastic NHS budget cuts by the Scottish Government; further notes that women in the west of Scotland have been forced to pay for their own ovarian cancer treatment due to long and unacceptably high delays; believes that the Scottish Government has failed to recognise and address the underlying preventable factors that contribute to poor mental health for women and girls; notes that the SNP administration made the decision to cut the mental health budget by nearly £20 million for 2024-25, despite the number of people in Scotland who reported to have a mental health condition doubling between 2011 and 2022; acknowledges that women’s life expectancy is lower than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, with Scotland ranked 22 out of 29 European nations for female lifespan in the 10 years up to 2022; urges the Scottish Government to restore the provision of consultant-led maternity services in rural areas, such as Moray and Caithness, so that women are no longer forced to travel hundreds of miles away from home to give birth; believes that the Scottish Government should abandon its proposed centralisation plans for specialist neonatal units in NHS Scotland, which includes downgrading services at University Hospital Wishaw, Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, and Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, potentially endangering the lives of vulnerable babies and placing additional stress on new and expectant mothers alike; calls on the Scottish Government to prioritise women’s reproductive health, as it currently takes an average of 8.5 years for a woman to get an official diagnosis for endometriosis, despite the fact that one in 10 women in Scotland live with this debilitating condition; believes that the Scottish Government should take steps to reduce cardiology waiting lists, which are at a record high in Scotland, as women are more likely than men to receive the wrong cardiac diagnosis and will receive half as many heart treatments; criticises the SNP administration for continuing to put gender ideology before the safety of women and girls by backing Rape Crisis Scotland, despite an independent review discovering that survivors were being let down, and calls on the Scottish Government to address the specific healthcare needs of women, ensuring that Scotland’s NHS is efficient, reliable and accessible for all women, always.”