Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. Thank you for the opportunity to make this important statement today about the publication of our quality statement on women’s and girls’ health. We’ve been working hard to improve the quality of care everyone receives in Wales and to reduce the level of variation in standards between services available in one part of Wales and another. However, there continue to be some very deep-seated and entrenched differences in the way men and women experience healthcare. These are well documented and well researched and are not unique to Wales.

Women make up just over half of our population and account for the majority of the NHS workforce in Wales. Women shoulder the majority of the family caring responsibilities and continue to do most of the work in the home, as well as working outside the home. But all too often, women receive healthcare based on the male experience of an illness, rather than getting the help and care they need, tailored towards their needs as a woman or a girl. Such gender biases and inequalities can mean women often receive poorer services and, in some cases, we are seeing poorer outcomes.

Research by the British Heart Foundation suggests that the deaths of at least 8,000 women could have been prevented if they had received equitable cardiac treatment over a 10-year period in England and Wales. This is just one example, in one area of medicine. Sadly, these inequalities are evident throughout medicine. Llywydd, this isn’t right and it’s not fair. If we are to be true to our overarching aim of providing person-centred care in Wales, then we must change the way we provide healthcare for women and girls so they can access it in a timely way, so the NHS is responsive to their choices and needs and that research and development reflects women's and girls’ lived experiences. That is why, today, I am publishing the quality statement on women’s and girls’ health.

I want to put on record today that when we talk about women’s health and women’s healthcare, we’re not just talking about gynaecological services or reproductive health. These are, of course, important services for women but they are not the beginning and the end of women’s healthcare. There are a wide range of conditions where women may present differently to men or may be disproportionately affected, including autism, asthma, migraine, bone and cardiac disease. Women also experience different patterns of need and presentations across ethnicity and disability, pregnancy and maternity. The NHS must be able to treat people experiencing these conditions appropriately to ensure the best possible outcomes.

The quality statement is the important first step in our plans to transform the care received by women in Wales. It sets out what the NHS is expected to deliver to ensure good-quality health services to support women and girls throughout the course of their lives. It describes what ‘good’ looks like. The quality statement will be followed by the publication of a 10-year women’s health plan in the autumn. The plan is being developed by NHS Wales with significant input from women’s groups. Together, the quality statement and the plan will set the course for the way services for women and girls will be provided and developed in Wales. I have been clear that the plan will follow the same life-course approach that the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists set out in its ‘Better for women’ report in 2019. It will advocate an approach where women have access to the right treatment throughout their lives and the NHS must work in a more preventative space.

While these two documents will set the course for the future, we have not been waiting for today to make changes to women's and girls’ healthcare in Wales. We have funded the women’s health implementation group and we’ve introduced specialist endometriosis nurses and pelvic health and well-being co-ordinators into each health board in Wales. They are ensuring women are being signposted to appropriate services and being supported through diagnosis and treatment.