In seeking to inform the development of the Women’s Health Strategy, the UK Government has requested written submissions of data, research, and reports of relevance to women’s health. In our submission we focus on the risk to patient safety resulting from sex and gender bias, including a recent evidence-based blog we published on this issue for International Women's Day 2021.
The call for evidence seeks views on 6 core themes that connect different areas of women’s health across the life course. Our submission most closely corresponds with the below three themes:
Theme 1 – Placing women’s voices at the centre of their health and care
Our submission highlights that too often women’s voices are not being listened to within the health and social care system regarding patient safety. We also note how in design and data a focus on male experience can create serious patient safety issues.
Theme 2 – Improving the quality and accessibility of information and education on women’s health
Our submission emphasises the importance of involving and engaging women effectively in their care and patient safety, providing the access and information they require to enable this.
Theme 5 – Ensuring research, evidence and data support improvements in women’s health
We set out the need for medical studies to be representative of males and females and the importance of disaggregating data by sex so that differences in the effectiveness and risks associated with medical interventions and treatments are available for analysis.
