Our History

The Primary Care Women’s Health Society (PCWHS) is established as a progression from the Primary Care Women’s Health Forum (PCWHF) as it has grown in membership and stature over time, as described below.

In 2007 a few of us completed the Post-Graduate Diploma for Practitioners with a Special Interest in Gynaecology from the University of Bradford. Once qualified we discussed the need to continue our education and support recognising there was no provider of women’s health education for primary care or a primary care society similar to those for cardiovascular disease or diabetes.  

Through a contact from the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society we were introduced to the team at the publisher Sherbourne-Gibbs, who at that time produced a journal for the PCCS and supported their Society.  We contacted experts from primary and secondary care who supported enhanced primary care women’s health services and established a working group and editorial board. For 3 years we published the Primary Care Women’s Health Journal and started to establish ourselves as the Primary Care Women’s Health Forum under the guidance of Sherbourne-Gibbs.

Our ambition for the PCWHF was written in the early days and continues today:

• To support its members to deliver quality healthcare to women in primary care through education, sharing best practice and offering peer support
• Act as a lobby group for its members in influencing the Department of Health and others in determining future strategic direction and policy making in relation to women’s health
• Act as clinical and managerial cohort of expertise which can be called upon for advice across the spectrum of women’s health.

The first years were hard work for the clinicians establishing PCWHF as although there was amazing passion and interest generated by the team, the journal and educational events were not commercially viable.  And by 2010 the decision was made to transfer our managerial support to Events4healthcare.

The subsequent few years continued to be difficult as finding the money required to support the vision remained hard.  But with hours of voluntary work from the core founding clinicians and support from Events4healthcare we continued and became established as a Community Interest Company.

Since this rocky start, PCWHF has grown over the past 15 years from a few who attended the first meeting where we confirmed the need for the network to the many thousands who use our online resources, attend webinars and share knowledge, answering anonymised clinical queries, through the extremely active facebook group. 

Alongside the increasing numbers of PCWHF members and recognition from specialist organisations and the wider system, there was a need to formally establish a board of directors and committees to help with developing education and resources.  These enthusiastic clinicians regularly represent PCWHF at national conferences delivering lectures appropriate for the multi-disciplinary primary care audience on all aspects of women’s healthcare.

The position of PCWHF has also been firmly established in the policy arena where board members are asked to join strategic discussions to support national initiatives, share best practice and fight the corner for primary care services. Surveys of members gain insight into the challenges that are faced by primary care clinicians wanting to develop and deliver quality care for their women in their local environment and the survey results are used as evidence in reports to politicians and policymakers.  The excellent resources on developing and running a women’s health hub found on the website are used by many in their local workplace and are recognised as best practice by commissioners and policymakers.

As PCWHF has become an equal to other primary care societies, there has been a recognition of the need to change from a Forum to a Society and to transfer the administrative support to be provided by LCW. This change will support continuing growth and recognition for the work and input provided by PCWHS to develop further. The vision and remit of the work to provide quality education for the multi-disciplinary primary care team supporting them to deliver appropriate, accessible, acceptable care for their local populations remains unchanged.

It has been a long (painful in the first few years!) journey to get to where we are today – it is a massive thankyou to the team who have stuck to the vision and offered hours/days of their own time to establish what I think we all agree is an amazing Society.