So where is Scotland’s women’s health champion? No appointment 14 months on

A multiple sclerosis charity has joined calls urging the Scottish Government to appoint a Women’s Health Champion urgently.

The proposed appointment to help close widening gender gaps in care and treatment was announced with great fanfare last August before ministers admitted it might take three years before an appointment was made.

Under pressure, Nicola Sturgeon said in June the role would be filled “by the end of the summer”.

England announced a similar role in January and filled it in June and now MS Scotland is adding its voice to the clamour for action. The charity says the neurological condition, which affects up to three times as many women, desperately needs the focus and attention which a Women’s Health Champion can bring.

MS Scotland say an immediate appointment is vital to address the need for additional care and research to lead to improvements in the way women’s multiple sclerosis is managed.

It urges no more delays after the initial announcement as a key action in the Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Plan in 2021.

The Post published an open letter from 17 leading charities in May calling for greater urgency.

Morna Simpkins, director of MS Society Scotland, said: “We are delighted to support The Sunday Post’s campaign for the urgent appointment of a Women’s Health Champion in Scotland.

“The swift appointment of a Women’s Health Champion is needed to ensure equality of treatment for women with all health conditions, including MS.

“Although we are here for everyone in Scotland affected by multiple sclerosis, women are three times more likely to get MS than men.

“Many women tell us their MS symptoms can be affected by their monthly period, pregnancy and the menopause but no one knows the exact reasons for this.”

MS patient Cath Hannah, 52, from Orkney, was diagnosed at 18, a year after her first year into a Chinese studies university degree.

She said: “MS is a particularly Scottish neurological condition affecting many more women and it is not only challenging to live with, but distressing to watch others do their best to cope.”

She added that despite living on a group of islands with the world’s highest incidence of MS, she has a six-hour ferry trip to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary because there is no appropriate MRI scanner on Orkney.

She said: “There is no MRI scan or visiting neurologist so the onus is on patients to travel in unpredictable North Sea weather. There is a ray of light in our caring MS nurse. She has the dual responsibility for motor neuron disease patients.”

MS Scotland reports more than 15,000 people are currently living with MS in Scotland. “The majority of these are women,” it added.

Edinburgh University’s Viking Genes study says research has yet to show why Orkney has the world’s highest incidence.

In the past, researchers used data to try and understand the role that vitamin D played in MS rates. They found that low levels of vitamin D do play an important role in influencing someone’s risk. However, vitamin D levels in Orkney were higher than Glasgow.

The university’s professor Jim Wilson, said: “If someone has a rare variant increasing their risk of MS, and also has low vitamin D, maybe smokes, maybe has the HLA variant as well, then the combination of risk factors might be enough to tip them into clinical disease.”

The Scottish Government said: “We are currently considering a number of candidates to take on the role of the Women’s Health Champion and expect to make an announcement about the appointment soon.”