Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he is ashamed that patients are treated in corridors in Britain. To address this, crack teams of experts will be deployed to trusts with the worst rates of corridor care to fix problems, and 40 new and expanded centres have been named across England to ease pressure on stretched A&Es. A Royal College of Nursing report in January described corridor care as a type of torture, highlighting the severity of the crisis in NHS hospitals.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting declared the NHS is failing women, unveiling a comprehensive package of measures to prevent women from being gaslit by the health service. Specific measures to improve women's healthcare include empowering women to influence the withholding of payments for services if they experience substandard care. Action will also be taken to significantly reduce diagnostic waiting times for common women's health conditions like endometriosis.
I cannot imagine for myself or someone that I love in my own family being on a corridor being remotely dignified. It is certainly undignified, it is certainly less safe, and that's why we've got to get rid of it.
A new standard of care will ensure women are offered pain relief for invasive procedures such as fitting a contraceptive coil and hysteroscopies, aiming to improve pain management during these procedures. A coalition of 43 organizations has accused the Government of a dangerous delay in publishing a bone health strategy. Around half of NHS trusts lack fracture liaison services despite Wes Streeting's promise to end the postcode lottery, exacerbating regional disparities in care.
Since Labour came to office, the delay has led to 17,000 preventable fractures across England. The delay has caused more than 7,000 life-threatening hip fractures that could have been avoided, illustrating the human cost of the postponement. Every year the plan is delayed, an estimated 2,000 people die following hip fractures that early diagnosis could have stopped, underscoring the urgency of implementation.
I've said I want to get rid of this by the end of the Parliament, but if I can do it sooner, I absolutely will and we are keeping a real focus on this.
The delay has cost £150 million to the NHS and social care systems, highlighting the financial impact of inaction. Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced the roll-out of 20 new bone scanners to ensure tens of thousands of patients are treated for osteoporosis earlier, a move that contrasts with the delayed strategy. Broadcaster Mariella Frostrup has joined campaigners in calling for an end to Government delays in rolling out osteoporosis clinics, adding celebrity pressure to the issue.
5 million patients in the UK live with osteoporosis, indicating the scale of the crisis. Half of women and one in five men will break a bone due to osteoporosis, showing the widespread risk across the population. 1,760,000 women in the UK are not receiving the treatment they need for osteoporosis, revealing significant gaps in current healthcare provision.
I've been around this hospital on some of its worst days, looking people in the eye, both the patients in the beds, but also their loved ones who are waiting in the corridor, and it just makes you feel ashamed. I wouldn't want someone I love to be in that situation. And that for me is the ultimate test.
The Government has not specified what timeline or milestones are included in its plan to eradicate corridor care, nor has it detailed how exactly women's feedback will be linked to provider funding in the new trial under the Women's Health Strategy. Critical unknowns persist about when the Government will publish a detailed delivery plan for the national rollout of fracture liaison services and what the total cost estimate is for rolling out these services across all NHS trusts. Uncertainty also surrounds how many of the 40 new and expanded centres to ease A&E pressure have been completed or are operational.
Women have for so long been let down by a healthcare system that too often gaslights women, treating their pain as an inconvenience and their symptoms as an overreaction.
Whether it's being passed from one appointment to another for conditions like endometriosis and fibroids, or a lack of proper pain relief during invasive procedures, through to having to navigate symptoms for years before receiving a diagnosis, it's clear the system is failing women.
Too many women are suffering painful, preventable fractures because osteoporosis is diagnosed too late. That has to change. These new scanners will help thousands of patients get tested sooner, start treatment earlier and avoid the trauma of life-changing breaks. We are cutting waiting times and modernising the NHS so it works for patients – preventing illness where we can, and delivering care faster for those that need it most. I'm grateful to campaigners and to the Sunday Express for championing this issue and supporting action to improve bone health services.