The Department of Health and Social Care’s Women’s Health Strategy for England (2022, updated 2024) set out 10-year ambitions for boosting the health and wellbeing of women and girls, and for improving how the health and care system listens to women. Although women in the UK live longer on average than men, the evidence shows they spend a greater proportion of their lives in ill health or disability when compared with men.

In March 2023, the government announced funding for the implementation or expansion of Women’s Health Hubs (WHH) to improve access to and experiences of care, improve health outcomes for women, and reduce health inequalities.

NHS Dorset have been working closely with Dorset Women Community Interest Company (CIC), system partners and women themselves over the past two years to understand how to implement the recommendations from the Women’s Health Strategy for England locally across the county of Dorset, as well as women’s health priorities overall, driving forward the Dorset Women’s Health programme.

As part of the programme, the Dorset Women’s Health Website was developed, to be a central point of reference for all information, education, awareness, self-help, and service provision concerning women’s health for the women of Dorset, as well as five additional projects:

  • Menopause

  • Pelvic floor disorders

  • Young women’s mental and physical health

  • Long-acting reversible contraception

  • Minority groups and mobile support

A survey was circulated in May last year to help support and direct the work of NHS Dorset and partners. A new survey is being re-circulated to gather views and experiences from women and girls in Dorset to find out if anything has changed. It will also help to develop the website and ensure it remains relevant and useful to the women and girls in Dorset, as well as helping to inform future work being taken forward by teams working across women’s health in Dorset.

People living in Dorset are invited to complete an online survey:

The survey is live until Tuesday 25 November 2025. All responses are confidential.

If you have any questions about this survey, or would like to request a paper or an easy read version of the survey, please email communication@nhsdorset.nhs.uk.