Health Services: Women

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England, published in April 2026, places tackling medical misogyny at its core, recognising that women have been dismissed for far too long and that this must change.

The strategy takes a systemic approach to addressing medical misogyny and ensuring women’s voices and experiences shape care. This includes putting women’s lived experience, including pain and whether they felt listened to, at the heart of how National Health Service quality is defined, measured, and improved. For the first time, women’s feedback on pain management will directly influence NHS accountability, and patient reported experience measures will be embedded in core women’s health pathways.

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy strengthens escalation and feedback routes, building on Jess’s Rule and Martha’s Rule, so women can challenge when symptoms persist or they feel they are not being listened to. Jess’s Rule ensures that patients who have been seen by a general practitioner three times without a clear diagnosis will have their care rethought. Similarly, Martha’s Rule allows hospital inpatients and their families to seek an urgent review of their condition if it is rapidly deteriorating.

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy also introduces a new measure of how often women have to repeat their story to different professionals, supporting better continuity through the diagnostic journey.