‘Women’s voices should be heard and pain should never be ignored’, vows Wales’s first Women’s Health Minister

• Women's health summit tackles pain and patient voice in NHS Wales
• Clinicians, researchers and women with lived experience come together to drive change
• New framework to ensure women's voices shape Women's Health Plan

Women's voices should be heard and their pain should not simply be endured, Wales's first Women's Health Minister has vowed.

Delyth Jewell said she was determined to tackle the normalisation of pain in women's healthcare and wanted to ensure women's voices were listened to.

Speaking during a Women's Health Summit at the Temple of Peace, she said: "For too long, women's health has been treated as an afterthought. No woman should be afraid to speak up about pain or things that don't feel right.

Women should be believed about their bodies, and I am determined to change the culture that has let too many women down."

She added: "Women's voices helped create the Women's Health Plan. Now we're making sure those voices continue to shape what comes next."

The summit brought together clinicians, researchers and women with lived experience to tackle the normalisation of pain in healthcare covering both clinical procedures and long-term conditions and to identify how women's voices can better shape NHS services.

Following the summit, minimum standards for service user engagement will be drafted to ensure women's voices continue to influence the delivery and future priorities of the Women's Health Plan.

Work to refresh and strengthen the plan will also begin, including gathering feedback directly from women across Wales.

Notes to editors

• The Women's Health Summit is being held at the Temple of Peace on Thursday, July 16
• The NHS Wales Women's Health Plan was developed following discovery work in 2022 in which women across Wales shared their experiences of healthcare. Many reported not feeling listened to, having symptoms dismissed, or living with pain for years before receiving a diagnosis.
• Delyth Jewell is Wales' first Minister for Women's Health.
• The summit examined pain associated with clinical procedures and with long-term health conditions, drawing on research evidence, clinical expertise and lived experience.