*Photo: Stuart Anderson MP visiting Wolverhampton COVID-19 champions in May 2021.
Stuart Anderson MP has called on the Government to ensure that healthcare services are more representative of the communities that they serve. As a local MP, Stuart has made championing health and wellbeing one of his top priorities. He wants to ensure that constituents are at the heart of healthcare and that the workforce becomes more representative of society.
In Parliament, Stuart has held Ministers to account on their commitment to helping more young people become scientists, clinicians, and technicians of the future. Ministers confirmed that the Government will invest an additional £43 million to provide another 16,000 places on skills boot camps. In the West Midlands, courses on women in data and women in software were oversubscribed by around four times.
Stuart has now called on women across his constituency in Wolverhampton to respond to the Government’s call for evidence to help inform its landmark Women’s Health Strategy. The first of its kind, the Strategy will address women’s health in England over the course of their lifetimes from adolescence through to older age. It will focus on health issues specific to women as well as the ways in which women experience health issues.
Stuart has welcomed the call for evidence. It comes on the back of recent research, which has shown that women are more likely to have long-term sickness absence and leave work altogether than men. Women also continue to take on disproportionate responsibility for childcare and caring for the elderly or disabled, which furthers impact women’s health and workforce participation.
So far, over 75,000 women, organisations, clinicians, and carers have responded. Yet feedback shows that women from the Midlands and East of England, those from Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds, and over-50s are under-represented in sharing their experiences. The call for evidence has now been extended to the 13th of June, allowing even more time to respond. The call for evidence has been designed to be user friendly, quick to fill in and easily accessible from people’s mobiles.
Stuart Anderson MP said: “Science, technology and biomedicine have been at the forefront of our response to COVID-19 and will help us on our road to recovery sell COVID-19. We must seize this moment to deliver a system that truly delivers for all and that recognises the unique challenges that are faced by my constituents, particularly women. I would encourage all women to share their experiences, so together we can deliver fairer, more equal, and better healthcare for everyone in our community”.
Minister for Women’s Health Nadine Dorries MP said: “The number of responses to date has been incredible and I thank everyone who has shared their experiences – these interim findings clearly highlight the need for decisive action. I now urge every woman to come forward and respond to the call for evidence. It is only by hearing the experiences and priorities of women from all walks of life that we can truly develop a strategy that works for all women.”
Constituents can respond to the call for evidence here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/womens-health-strategy-call-for-evidence