P-06-1444 Women of North Wales have the right to have a Menopause Services/Clinic in Ysbyty Gwynedd – Correspondence from the Petitioner to the Committee, 08 September 2024.
Thank you for your email on 3, July 2024, regarding my petition Women have the right to have a Menopause Clinic in North Wales : Ysbyty Gwynedd .
This is a very similar letter that Helen Stevens-Jones Director of Partnerships, Engagement and Communications of Ysbyty Gwynedd sent to Mr Rhun ap Iorwerth AS, 4 Feburary 2024
Eluned Morgan’s response is not acceptable and does not address the questions and concerns raised in the petition
She states that “the Health Board are responsible for delivering services for women in their community “, exactly they should, not Wrexham which is not central to North wales
She sates that the Health Boards states that majority of women access advice for their menopause from their primary care service. Does she have the stats for this statement by the Heath Board? have these women been asked how good was the service they received , did they benefit from the service , where they listen to and heard, did they understand what was said to them, was it explained to them, did the understand , did they feel they had time to talk in depth about what was happening to them, was the service a “ great”…………amongst many more questions I would ask if I was the Engagement and Communications Director, as this is my role and has been for many years
It is good to read that the Health Board is looking at reviewing job plans, but how quickly and how well will this service be? Will it just be a tick box tokenisms service or will it really help and benefit women of North Wales and I hope this will all be based in Ysbyty Gwynedd? I hope so
The Welsh language act 1993, places a duty on every public body providing a service to the public in Wales, how they will provide a service in Welsh to their service users, have they also taken this on board?
I look forward to hearing from you soon
Regards
Delyth
Below you will see highlighted in yellow my response to the letter from Helen Stevens-Jones :
Thank you for your email on 9 February 2024, asking about the development of menopause services at the Health Board.
All of our gynecology consultants across our three hospitals continue to see women and people with menopause-related symptoms in their Gynecology Clinics.
As you state in your email, our Women's Services have recently successfully implemented Specialist Menopause Clinics which are run by our three Consultant Gynecologists who are accredited as menopause specialists by the British Menopause Society. Why can one of these not be set up in Ysbyty Gwynedd, it would not cost much to have a clinic in Bangor YG once a week and will save money travel, are etc for the patients. Wrexham is not central to North Wales patients
These specialist clinics, based in Deeside and Wrexham Maelor Hospital, are for providing specialist menopause advice to patients across North Wales, This is not North Wales , these need to be more central to North Wales, not on the English border with more complex needs such as multiple treatment failures, insufficiency premature ovarian failure, complex medical problems, high risk cancer genes or hormone dependent cancer. Why can they not provide someone who can deal with complex patients in YG? Why make the patients travel .The waiting list for Wrexham is awful. I have been told recently by women the waiting time is 2 years! I have also been informed that the service is awful, several women complaining to me about the treatment and inadequate service in Wrexham , this is not acceptable
Our menopause specialists often hold virtual consultations to avoid the need for patients to travel as we appreciate that traveling to face-to-face consultations can involve a significant journey from some parts of North Wales, and this has been appreciated by the women and their families. How many virtual consolations have they done? Women need the choice and sometimes face to face is a must, viral does not “show “how the women is, it’s doesn’t give the human touch which is so needed with the Menopayse
Our Women's Services are now taking a number of actions, led by our menopause experts, in order to maintain and expand the service moving forward. These include training medical and nursing colleagues, in primary and secondary care, and educating Women's Services staff and allied health professionals through webinars and teaching sessions. Where are these based? is there a list of where they are for people to access? Yes there are many more training providers offering the well-being of menopause in the work place etc, Menopause Champions etc , there are books and online etc which is fantastic we are speaking more and more about it and not affaird anymore , we are now much more knowledgeable …………….but these are not the professionals that can offer best advice and treatment
Recently, the Clinical Leader has invited expressions of interest from colleagues in the Central and Western Health Board area to receive training in this subject with the aim of providing services closer to home. How many have replied to this request? also how many speak welsh as this is just as immportamts to be able to talk in the language of choice , at home being where ?
The service is currently re-reviewing job plans for the current specialists to enable them to provide additional face-to-face and virtual consultations across North Wales and is investigating the possibility of a pilot program of virtual sessions with doctors family to review their cases and provide specialist input and advice without the need to refer a patient to secondary care. By when and where? Is this going to be Ysbyty Gwynedd ?
As you will appreciate, funding remains a significant challenge in the NHS. However, we are committed to ensuring that we provide accessible, high quality menopause services across North Wales and I hope that my comments provide reassurance that we continue to develop the arrangements to support this. Please feel free to contact me again if you need more information on this. What is being asking for does not require funding, it’s a car or train journey once a week or more to Bangor from Wrexham by a consultant