International Women's Day: Gateshead health boss' push to be 'centre for excellence' in women's health

On International Women's Day, the boss of Gateshead's hospitals spoke of her ambition to make the town a "centre of excellence" for women's health.

Trudie Davies has been chief executive of the Gateshead Health NHS Trust for the past year. Speaking to ChronicleLive, she said building on the Government's Women's Health Strategy, which has provided funding to set up a women's health hub in Gateshead, was part of a plan to ensure that the local community gets the best possible care.

The regional NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board has invested £500,000 in three "hubs" - in Sunderland and Cumbria as well as in Gateshead. At Gateshead, the idea will see "one-stop-shop" services in GP practices, pharmacies and community venues. There will be an initial focus on gynaecology, sexual health and breast services.

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Trudie told ChronicleLive: "We know that women in Gateshead don't necessarily have as good [health] outcomes as we would expect, and we know that when you improve the health of women, you improve the health of the community.

"And we also happen to have a range of absolutely fabulous women's services - what we want to do is join them up so we can offer an even better service for women across the Gateshead footprint. That'll be working with the voluntary sector, with primary care and with the local authority to make sure women's health is prioritised."

The chief executive - whose trust runs the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Bensham Hospital and a range of community services - added that already leading the region's gynae-oncology services and having a "fantastic" maternity service meant the idea of a centre for excellence was building on solid foundations.

She added: "It's important we don't work in isolation in hospital, that GPs don't work in isolation, that the voluntary sector doesn't work in isolation and that maternity doesn't work in isolation. We need to try and collectively bring what we do together so that we change services to meet women's needs.

"We'll do that by improving access so hopefully we'll be able to offer one-stop-shops rather than multiple visits to different organisations."

Trudie said she hoped working differently and more collaboratively as health services could help to reduce health inequalities in the region. She added: "We don't want women to have to take multiple time off work to go to separate appointments."

She said that linking up services such as cervical and breast screening, menopause care or contraception clinics could save the appointments needed. She said: "We want to say, 'if we joined some of these up, could we make that more efficient and effective for women so that we capture more people and they don't have to go to multiple appointments?".

As one of the region's many female NHS leaders, along with figures including Samantha Allen who heads up the NENC Integrated Care Board, Birju Bartoli at the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust and Helen Ray at the North East Ambulance Service, Trudie said she had found her gender beneficial when it comes to the skills she brings.

She reflected on her journey from working as a stroke ward nurse in Leeds in the 1990s to where she is now. She said: "I'd encourage all women and girls to be ambitious. I started out as a staff nurse on a ward in 1992. I was a student nurse.

"And if you'd said to me then that 'in 2024, you're going to be the chief executive of Gateshead Health', I would never have believed you. I say to my daughter never ever be held back by what you can't do. Always have ambition around what you can do."

But really, she said, leadership was not about gender. Trudie added: "Leadership, whether you're a man or a woman, is about having strong values and being able to articulate those - and to work to a set of values that allows you to sleep very comfortably at night.

"And when you are clear, when you're strong, when you're compassionate and those leadership skills come through."