Lord Patel (CB)

My Lords, my interests are well known in regard to women’s health. I congratulate the Minister on this report, which I think is a good one. The gaps are in how, in some places, it will be delivered on. But I also recognise her personal commitment to improving women’s health, and I applaud that. I hope she will forgive me, but I observe that the strategy is called The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England, so there is a suggestion that there was one before. And the Command Paper number is 1558. That was the year Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne, so I presume the strategy had not been renewed since then—but I joke. The important point I want to make is related to research. Many of the issues recognised in the report are because of failure of research, conducted over a long period of time, in better understanding the biology and molecular basis of these diseases. They are treated empirically, and when they are treated empirically, the treatment cannot always be right. We need a strategy in research that focuses over a longer period on better understanding the biology of some of these diseases and finding treatments for them. One way to do this is not by project grants in areas of research, as this report suggests, but by promoting long-term research through what are known as programme research grants. These are given over a longer period of time and competitively allocated into academic institutions to address the issue of understanding the biology of diseases in women’s health and find treatments. Polygenic risk scores sound sexy, but they will not be the answer. They are exactly what they say they are: they are based on scores. Some of them are evidence-based, and some are not. What we need is better evidence. My suggestion and question to the Minister is this: would the Government look at the possibility of investigating, with their research institution, developing programme grant funding for a longer period for research in women’s health? If she would like a more detailed conversation, I would be delighted.