We’ve opened a Women’s Health Hub in the Ilford Exchange Shopping Centre, in collaboration with partners including NHS North East London, making it easier for women to get the care they need while helping to reduce the health inequalities they face.

It’s initially supporting women with urogynaecology issues, such as continence, pelvic floor injury and bladder pain, and those with menopause symptoms, offering specialist menopause clinics for the first time.

It will reduce delays while helping us to tackle our waiting lists, which are made up of more than 10% of patients awaiting women’s health related care. Of those, 55% are awaiting their first outpatient appointment.

The hub is in the recently opened Ilford Exchange Health Centre , based in the shopping centre, bringing care closer to home for many and reducing the need for women to travel to hospital.

Once referred by their GP, women will be offered face-to-face appointments with physiotherapists and nurses who can help and advise on issues such as pelvic health and HRT. A GP with a special interest in gynaecology will also be joining the team.

Fiona Wheeler (above), our Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer, said:

Women have not been getting a good deal when it comes to healthcare. The waiting list for women’s health related care is our biggest and many are waiting too long to get the care they need.

Our Women’s Health Hub is what we’re doing about it, working collaboratively to find alternative ways for women to access the care they need without joining a long waiting list to see a consultant. 

This means using our workforce differently. In the long-term, this will free up outpatient appointments and mean shorter waiting times.

The hub will take time to fully establish, however, it is already making a positive difference to the lives of the women seen there.

There will also be digital working beyond the hub with professionals from our multidisciplinary team, based across our hospitals, meeting to discuss referrals to the hub. For those who are not suitable to be cared for there, the right referrals will be made to teams which can help them.