Hubs In Place Across East London For Specialist Care For Women.

Women in north east London are being offered quicker access to specialist care and treatment for a range of health issues as new services are rolled out by the NHS.

Working with local partners, NHS North East London has been developing and improving services to ensure women have easier access to expert help with menstrual problems, contraception, pelvic pain, menopause care and other reproductive health issues.

These include Women’s Health Hubs which aim to reduce health inequalities, ease pressure on hospital services and help cut local waiting lists, particularly in gynaecology.

NHS North East London has also launched a new Women’s Health campaign to raise awareness of common women’s health conditions, and provide key information and advice around how to access support.

It comes as local statistics show that in north east London:

• Two-thirds of women (66%) experienced symptoms of reproductive ill-health yet around a third (30%) of women with symptoms of reproductive ill-health or a health condition had not accessed services in the last year
• Six in 10 women (59%) experienced moderate to severe period pain during their period
• Nearly one in four women (24%) had to take at least one day off work or education a month because of their period symptoms
• Yet only one in five women (21%) with severe pain or heavy periods said they received help from a healthcare professional
• Almost one in five (18%) women said they took time off work due to menopause symptoms
• Around a third of women (35%) who did not take time off for menopause symptoms said they wanted to but did not feel comfortable doing so.

About the women’s health hubs: 

Designed around local needs, the hubs bring together doctors, nurses and other healthcare specialists to provide expert care and support for a range of women’s health conditions through a mixture of specialist clinics, group consultations and pop-up events.

Although some teams operate from a central location, the hubs are a model of care rather than a single place or building and they all offer a mix of virtual support and in-person services using smaller sites such as GP surgeries and community venues.

Four women’s health hubs have been opened in north east London so far:

• City and Hackney Women’s Health Hublaunched in April 2021 and is now available across all neighbourhoods. It offers routine gynaecology and contraception services, along with virtual patient engagement events and group consultations covering menopause, menstrual health and other topics, which have already reached more than 3,500 women. Run by Homerton Hospital, the hub is now streamlining access to ensure that all women referred for treatment can either be supported by their GP, with expert advice from a consultant – rather than in hospital – or seen sooner in a community setting, in their local area, if medically appropriate
  
• Tower Hamlets Women’s Health Hublaunched in December 2023 covering the whole borough, initially as a pilot service. Based at a community hospital site, it operates as a ‘one-stop-shop’, with follow-up as required. This provides streamlined access to gynaecology care, ensuring women are seen in the right place, first time, as soon as possible. Prior to its launch, 85% of women referred for gynaecology care were seen in a hospital setting and 15% were supported by their GP with consultant guidance. In its first 12 months, the hub oversaw 3,500 referrals of which:
  • Only 25% needed to be seen in the hospital-based gynaecology service – a 60% reduction on a year earlier. This has reduced waiting lists, which have come down by 30% in just a few months.
  • 37% were managed in primary care with consultant guidance.
  • 35% were seen in the Tower Hamlets Women’s Health Hub.
    
• Barking, Havering and Redbridge (BHR) Women’s Health Hub launched in Redbridge in July 2024 and has plans to expand across BHR following the success of an initial pilot – ensuring women in all three boroughs will soon have access to consultant-led specialist clinics closer to home. The hub has recently completed recruitment for GPs with extended roles and is setting up new specialist clinics – including for menopause, urogynaecology and pelvic pain. Since the hub went live, referral to treatment times have dropped and number of women to be seen by a hospital clinician has fallen, with more patients who require physiotherapy and menopause care supported within the hub rather than in hospital.

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