Health Services: Women

The Department is committed to improving early diagnosis of all cancer types, including ovarian cancer.

The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver the three big shifts our National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community; from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention. All of these are relevant to improving early diagnosis and support for women’s health conditions in all parts of the country.

As a first step, the NHS is now delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to ensure early diagnosis and faster treatment, including for women with ovarian cancer. NHS England is continuing the roll out of community diagnostic centres to ensure that patients can access the diagnostic tests they need as quickly as possible. The NHS is also improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred, including non-specific symptom pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway. Combined, these interventions will help to improve the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer and reduce misdiagnosis, with further actions to be outlined in the forthcoming National Cancer Plan, which will follow the 10-Year Health Plan.

The Department is also committed to improving the diagnosis of women’s health conditions more broadly by taking urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the Elective Reform Plan, supporting innovative models offering patients care closer to home, and by piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres. Moreover, the Department supports the use of clinical guidelines that help healthcare professionals identify and manage these conditions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidelines on a range of women’s health conditions, including heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and menopause.