Representational Image. AFP
New Delhi: A global tracker on Tuesday revealed that the UK offers poorer healthcare for women than China and Saudi Arabia.
Among the 122 countries evaluated in the 2021 Hologic Global Women’s Health Index, UK secured 30th position slipping off from 12th last year.
The UK was placed lower than several nations with questionable records for women’s rights as a result of its inadequate efforts at health problem prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Britain performed lower than the majority of comparable Western nations, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Germany, according to the study, which analysed a variety of data.
For the provision of healthcare for women, it received a score that puts it on level with Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Kosovo, and Poland, which is three points lower than when a comparable exercise was conducted last year.
The results indicate a decline in Britain’s standing, which was previously rated higher than nations including China, Saudi Arabia, the US, France, and New Zealand. However, direct comparisons are however impossible becausemany countries assessed this year were not included last year.
The Hologic Women’s Health Index is based on a survey of more than 127,000 people conducted by analytics company Gallup of people all over the world.
Poor access to screening, lengthy diagnosis, wait times, and a lack of support for mental health, according to analysts, are some of the causes contributing to Britain’s subpar performance.
After it was revealed last month that waiting times for gynaecology services in England had tripled in a decade, the UK Government was charged with “consistently deprioritizing” women’s health.
Women now have to wait almost four months on average for their initial hospital visit with a gynaecologist. On the waiting list, nevertheless, are almost 38,000 English women who have been on it for over a year.
The UK’s score for women’s emotional wellbeing dropped eight points in a year to 68 out of 100, which brought attention to problems with the country’s mental health support system.
The UK received a mere 23 out of 100 points for preventative care, which includes cancer and diabetes screenings. Adults from racial and ethnic minorities were shown to be particularly at risk of missing out in a separate Hologic poll of 10,000 people in the UK.
In UK, one in five women reported having everyday pain. However, the UK-only survey indicated that more than a quarter of respondents had not been able to receive a diagnosis at all and 15% had received one only after eight ormore visits to healthcare providers.
Women in the UK who experienced pain had to visit a doctor an average of 4.3 times before the cause was identified.
Another study discovered that women are at least 80% more likely than males to experience negative medication reactions to drugs prescribed by their doctors.
Over a six-year period, one in four people experienced at least one of these side effects, with women and those taking at least five pills having an at least 80% higher risk of experiencing such harms.
The study, which was written up in the British Journal Of General Practice, followed 592 patients in the Republic of Ireland from 15 general practises who were 70 years of age or older over the course of six years.
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