with Womenkind Collective Podcast #wheresmyclinic Campaign & Menopause Support
Many Counties in the UK are without an NHS Menopause Clinic.
While some Counties with specialist Clinics accept referrals from nearby Counties, others can only provide care for patients from their own practice or town.
This can be confusing for both patients and Health Professionals when trying to either provide or request support. To add to this confusion some are British Menopause Society Certified & others are not.
Last year we conducted a nationwide survey with http://menopausesupport.co.uk to find out more about NHS Menopause Clinics and support across England’s Counties. We asked participants about their satisfaction in menopause care where they live and whether they had access to, or knew if they had access to an NHS Menopause Clinic in their own County.
Results
1046 people took part in the survey and were from over 21 English Counties,
- 97.8%) were in Menopause (peri to post),
- 0.9% were supporting someone in menopause,
- 0.3% were Health Care Practitioners
- 0.2% were Menopause specialists.
NHS Menopause Clinics
Asked if their county had an NHS Menopause Clinic,
- 54% did not know
- 19.3% responded with yes they did have an NHS Menopause Clinic
- 26.4% saying they did not.
The participants were asked if they had been referred to an NHS Menopause Clinic
- 19% have been referred to an NHS Menopause Clinic, (either in the past or waiting for an appointment).
- 76% participants have not been offered a referral to an NHS Menopause Clinic.
Out of those who had been referred
- 7% of people were referred to a neighbouring County
- 15% were referred inside their County
Private Menopause Clinics
We asked participants if they had attended a Private Menopause Clinic
- 23% had been to a Private Menopause Clinic
- 74% had not
- 3.3% of people were on a private menopause clinic waiting list, or had accessed private care through work.
We asked the participants if they had any other Menopause support in your area that is not a BMS Certified Menopause Clinic,
- 6% of people said yes they did,
- 31 % said they did not
- 59% said that they didn’t know, with a few participants (in Counties with no NHS Clinics) saying they had set up their own Menopause support groups in their area as they couldn’t find any already there.
Menopause support satisfaction
When asked if participants were satisfied with the Menopause support in their area
- 11% said they were,
- 77% said they were dissatisfied
- 13% said it had varied or that they hadn’t sought support yet, for example ‘I have been fortunate but my friends have had a bad time getting support’ or ‘Not initially but through persistence it’s getting better.’
Asked if they felt supported by their GP,
- 27% were happy with the level of GP support
- 50% said that they were not supported by their GP or practice.
- 19% said they were only supported after attending a private menopause clinic or through advocating for themselves and doing own research.
Conclusion
Perhaps the most surprising result in our survey was that over half (54%) of participants were unaware of NHS Menopause Clinics and whether they had one in their own County.
A huge percentage, 77%, of participants were unsatisfied with NHS Menopause support where they live with 50% also being unhappy with GP support. This is the same across all Counties in England of people that participated in our survey. It is difficult to say whether the counties with an NHS Menopause Clinic felt better supported than those who do not because such a vast number of participants were unaware that NHS Menopause Clinic was something that they could access.
We were unable to determine what specific menopause support people had in their area. More research is needed to find out and bring together what NHS Menopause support is available in different Counties that could then be used as a useful free resource aiding those in Menopause, Health Care Practitioners and GP’s alike.
Menopause Clinic for Devon Campaign 