Health Services in Preseli Pembrokeshire

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:22 pm on 15 June 2022.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 2:22, 15 June 2022

Diolch yn fawr, Joyce. I share with you the need for us to put a lot more time and effort into endometriosis in terms of the NHS in Wales, and that's why I was really pleased that this has been a focus of the women's health implementation group, where we've put forward an additional £1 million to really address this issue, along with a couple of other women's issues.

You'll be aware that I'm planning to make a quality statement on women in the next few weeks, and women's health. I of course am very pleased that we have been able to see those appointments of those clinical nurse specialists. The one in Hywel Dda has been in post since May 2021, and of course there is a referral mechanism in place so that they can refer to tertiary centres in Swansea and Cardiff if there is a need for more complex procedures. The endometriosis nurses are actively spending time with patients in clinic and liaising with those multidisciplinary teams to make sure that there's a better understanding of endometriosis. I think we all need a better understanding of endometriosis; it's certainly something that I've learnt a lot more about since taking this position.

The other thing that the women's health implementation group has done is to develop a dedicated website for patients and for nurses to use, Endometriosis Cymru, and that includes 'living with' stories from Welsh people, and also a symptom tracker. I hope that will help to be a diagnosis tool both for patients and clinicians, so that we can see a speeding up of that early diagnosis and treatment for endometriosis.