About the Women's Health Hub pilot
The Women's Health Hub pilot was a collaboration between the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, the Berkshire West Primary Care Alliance, and local heathwatches. The pilot aimed to:
Integrate women's healthcare pathways.
Increase women's access, experience and quality of healthcare.
Develop local expertise and leadership in women's health.
The Trust is one of the largest general hospital foundation trusts in England and the main provider of acute and specialist care services for Berkshire West. It provides gynaecology care from its main hospital site in Reading, Brants Bridge in Bracknell, and the West Berkshire Community Hospital in Thatcham. The Alliance is a limited company whose directors are local GPs and whose shareholders are 30 GP Practices across Berkshire West. The three Healthwatch organisations in Berkshire West are the independent champions for people who use health and social care services.
The pilot was funded by the Integrated Care Board from money allocated by the NHS for the establishment of Women's Health Hubs.
We piloted new services in three Primary Care Networks (PCNs) in Berkshire West, one each in the localities of Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham. We believe that this approach may be scalable in the future, either across all 17 PCNs in Berkshire West, or at one hub per local authority area.
General practice sat at the centre of our model: it supports women throughout their life course, with a trusted on-going relationship. We believe it is essential not to disrupt or deskill primary care where it is already operating effectively for women.
The pilot focused on menopause and pessaries. We tried different ways to deliver services, including:
Pessary fitting delivered by a lead practice within each local PCN.
Women awaiting pessary refitting in hospital given the choice of being seen in a local practice.
A new Berkshire West Women's Health Service providing more specialist services (initially for menopause) across the PCNs.
New partnership working between GPs and the the Royal Berkshire, with the hospital providing clinical oversight to the Hub.
The pilot received great feedback from patients and partners were keen to expand it. However, the Integrated Care Board decided not fund our work beyond the pilot. We are continuing with the menopause service until September 2025.