Women’s health

General practices already provide a lot of women’s health services. However, provision varies between practices. For example, overall, general practices in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire fit more long-acting reversible contraception (coils and implants) than the England average. However, some practices only have one member of staff who is qualified to fit contraception, which can lead to long waiting times.

We also know that knowledge and experience in providing menopause care varies between general practices. A recent Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Healthwatch report on menopause care experiences highlights where there are gaps in care.

We will deliver

• Improved access to and quality of coil and implant fitting and menopause care in general practice.
• A more trauma-informed approach to women’s health services.
• Better signposting to local women’s health services and useful and reliable information to support decision-making and self-management.

How we will do this

We are working with groups of practices called Primary Care Networks (PCNs) to improve women’s health services.

PCNs will make and implement plans for how they can best provide women’s health care across their practices. For example, setting up a coil and implants clinic that all patients from across the PCN can be booked into.

We will provide training for PCN staff on trauma-informed care with a specific focus on women’s health.

We are collating information on local women’s health services, including voluntary, community and social enterprise services, so general practice staff are better able to signpost people to what is available. We are also collating useful and reliable information on women’s health to help women in decision-making and self-management. Here are a few sites:

NHS England videos on endometriosis

Bristol Menopause Toolkits – information in Arabic, Somali, Punjabi and Urdu

We will work with PCNs to identify and help to address health inequalities in their local population.

 

Inclusion health is an umbrella term used to describe people who are socially excluded, who typically experience multiple overlapping risk factors for poor health, such as poverty, violence and complex trauma. People in inclusion health groups tend to face significant barriers to accessing and navigating mainstream health services.

We want to improve access to and quality of women’s health services for the following broad groups of people:

1. Migrants in vulnerable circumstances. This includes asylum seekers and refugees.
2. People facing multiple disadvantages. These are people experiencing a combination of problems including homelessness, substance misuse, involvement with the criminal justice system, mental ill-health, and victims of interpersonal violence and abuse.
3. Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities.

We will deliver

We will deliver local, small-scale interventions to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities for these groups through:

• improved access to women’s health information or services
• improved patient experience or quality of women’s health services

How we will do this

We will provide small grants to local organisations or community groups working in Bristol, North Somerset, or South Gloucestershire who have trusted relationships with people in these groups.

We will award one-off grants from £5,000 to £20,000, with a first phase of grants being advertised in Summer 2024, focusing on reaching migrants in vulnerable circumstances and people facing multiple disadvantages.

We are open to different ways of addressing women’s health needs, including medical and non-medical interventions. We encourage partnership applications, such as a joint application from a larger charity or specialist health service, collaborating with a community group.

Note: we will be exploring women’s health work with Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities later in 2024.

Find out more in our grant guidelines and application form

 

Confident and competent professionals are essential for high quality healthcare. Training and education sessions are an effective way of staying up to date with clinical guidance and best practice. It can also be helpful for professionals to talk and work together across different organisations and specialisms. For example, it helps to broaden understanding of women’s needs and to align and connect different services.

We will deliver

We will deliver a more confident, expert workforce with better connection and awareness among those working in women’s health services.

How we will do this

We will promote existing free and low-cost training resources and opportunities with our local professionals.

We are funding a Menopause Training Clinic in the menopause service at St. Michael’s Hospital, Bristol (part of University Hospital Bristol and Western NHS Foundation Trust). This clinic will enable six GPs to upskill in complex menopause care so they can bring this into their general practices.

We are providing a training and education package for healthcare professionals. This will include clinical sessions, such as pelvic health and contraceptive counselling. It will also include sessions on making services more inclusive, such as trauma-informed care and how to support people who are trans, non-binary or intersex to access the services they need.