Reproductive health

Maintaining good reproductive health outcomes throughout the life course has profound long-term effects on individuals and communities. We know that women and girls experience poor reproductive health outcomes, with almost half of all pregnancies being ambivalent or unplanned across the UK. In Torbay, this is also true and local data indicates that while rates have significantly fallen, Torbay remains an outlier for teenage conceptions, abortions amongst all ages and repeat abortions. This suggests that awareness and uptake of contraception may be an issue for some women locally.

For some years, and particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, some services did not bounce back as we had hoped in general practice. LARC (Long-Acting Reversible Contraception) is one of them, and access to LARC in general practice across the Bay is mixed. In terms of access to contraception, there is an offer for Long-Acting Reversible Contraception in each Primary Care Network, but this could be improved. The specialist contraception services at Castle Circus in Torquay are supporting more women than ever in Torbay and provide a high-quality service to all our local community. We know that to improve outcomes, women need a choice of where to get contraceptive care, and value having a range of choices in their local surgery.

Access for women to get Intra-Uterine Devices (IUDs) to support heavy menstrual bleeding and other reproductive health conditions is supported by joint working with Primary Care, NHS Devon ICB (Integrated Care Board) and Torbay Council’s Public Health Team. As part of this national Women’s Health strategy, NHS Devon ICB has been provided with non-recurrent funding to establish a Women’s Health Hub. Across all of Devon, including Torbay, the ICB are working with Public Health to develop a networked hub model with menopause and long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) as the two main priorities. This ambition is aligned with the NHS Devon Joint Forward Plan.

Work is taking place to deliver a pilot menopause service across Devon which provides Torbay GPs (General Practice) with advice and guidance from British Menopause Society (BMS) specialist trained clinicians. This means that women in Torbay will have better access to specialist menopause knowledge in the management of complex cases. Partners are also delivering a programme of education events throughout the year, to support GPs in gaining a better knowledge of the management of menopause.

The development of a digital gateway for Women’s Health on the MyHealth Devon website [29] will provide women in Torbay access to digital resources on a range of women’s health conditions, allowing them to better self-help, seek local support and to inform better conversations with their GPs.