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The Government will not be progressing a stand-alone Women's Health Strategy – despite huge numbers of islanders engaging in an ongoing consultation on the topic.
Assistant Health Minister Deputy Andy Howell – who was responsible for the strategy – told the States Assembly last week that she did not want to put in place a strategy that was unfunded.
Asked by Deputy Louise Doublet for an update on the Women's Health Strategy, Deputy Howell replied: "The [Health] Minister [Tom Binet] has proposed that officers do not progress the production of a stand-alone, unfunded women's health strategy.
Pictured: Assistant Health Minister Deputy Andy Howell had responsibility for the Women's Health Strategy.
"This decision was supported by the women's health political advisory group at our meeting in early April."
She explained: "The group recognised that there are limited staff resources to allocate to the development of a standalone strategy and agreed to focus on work that is already in train.
"This work includes a review of the termination of pregnancy law and funding for IVF and contraception services.
"The group also decided that once we have an opportunity to reflect on the findings of the ongoing women's health and wellbeing public consultation, we will publish a statement of intent setting out other priorities that we will seek to address once we have supported delivery of our current activity."
Reacting to the news, Chair of the Health Scrutiny Panel Deputy Doublet said: "I'm disappointed that the Minister has decided that this area is not essential.
"It's particularly worrying that the Minister has chosen which areas to continue and stopped work on others, whilst a public consultation is underway."
Pictured: Deputy Louise Doublet, Chair of the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel.
She also raised concerns that abandoning the wider strategy to focus on specific work such as abortion and IVF risks leaving other women's health issues such as endometriosis, PCOS, and menopause unaddressed.
"The Minister needs to listen to the women of Jersey," said Deputy Doublet.
When a public consultation on women's health was launched earlier this year, it gathered 400 responses within its first day.
At the time, Deputy Howell said that the number of responses to the Women's Health and Wellbeing Survey made it "clear that women want to have their say about their health and wellbeing needs".
Speaking to the Health scrutiny panel in March, the Assistant Health Minister called the number of respondents "extraordinary".
In a letter published on Tuesday 30 April, Health Minister Tom Binet confirmed that plans to produce a standalone strategy had been scrapped and that the department would publish a "statement of intent" after the survey was complete.
CLICK TO READ IN FULL: Tom Binet's letter dated Tuesday 30 April.
Speaking to the States Assembly, Deputy Howell added that before receiving the results of the consultation, she would not be able to say which areas would be brought forward.
Asked by Deputy Hilary Jeune about people in Jersey concerned about women's health "yet again being kicked down the road", Deputy Howell said she recognised the importance of women's health and wanted to "focus limited resources in key women's services".
She added that the women's health advisory group would prioritise the responses to the consultation.
The Women's Health Strategy was first announced by former Health Minister Karen Wilson in her Ministerial Delivery Plan published on 1 January 2023.
The original timeline for the delivery of the strategy said that the first round of public consultation would be concluded by the third quarter of 2023.
The analysis of the results of the consultation were due to be delivered at the end of 2023, with the proposals for actions for inclusion within the strategy to be ready to go back out to consultation in the first quarter of 2024.
You have until 21 May 2024 to complete the Women's Health and Wellbeing Survey HERE.
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