Gynaecology
GIRFT carried out a national review of maternity and gynaecology services from 2019-2020 and the programme’s national report – containing recommendations for both specialties – was published in September 2021.
The report outlined how the NHS could shape a better service for the 750,000+ women referred to a admitted to hospital for a gynaecology review or those attending more than 3.6m outpatient appointments for conditions such as endometriosis, incontinence and infertility.
The ten key recommendations for gynaecology were designed to support and accelerate the shift towards making more effective use of primary and intermediary care and providing more choice to women.
GIRFT has now separated out the specialties of gynaecology and maternity. Our work for gynaecology focuses on reducing waiting times, transforming the outpatient experience and reducing the time women spend in hospital. Gynaecology is one of the 25 specialties included in the GIRFT Further Faster programme, which brings together hospital trust clinicians and operational teams with the challenge of collectively going ‘further and faster’ to transform patient pathways.
- Gynaecology Clinical Lead
Angus Thomson
Gynaecology clinical lead
Angus is a consultant gynaecologist at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and the deputy chief medical officer (elective, cancer and diagnostics) at NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board. Having trained in Liverpool and Sydney, Australia, he has been a consultant gynaecologist in Worcester since 2005.
His clinical special interest areas are minimal access/laparoscopic surgery and urogynaecology. He has always been interested in optimising patient pathways, minimising length of stay and improving patient experience.
Angus has also held a range of managerial positions (clinical director, divisional director, deputy CMO for the ICB) and through these roles has focused particular interest in service development and quality improvement.
He is currently a senior council member for British Society of Gynaecological Endoscopy (BSGE) and chair of the Endometriosis Centres sub-committee. In this role he has helped reshape the accreditation of BSGE Endometriosis Centres and has overseen the development of a new surgical database used across the country by endometriosis centres. As well as setting up the BSGE Endometriosis Centre in Worcestershire, Angus has optimised access to minimal access surgery and shorter length of stay.
- Gynaecology Clinical Advisors
Annabel Kemp
Joint gynaecology clinical advisor
Annabel is a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology with a special interest in reproductive medicine at Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Trust.
She is also the gynaecology clinical lead, playing a central role in service transformation across a newly merged trust.
Annabel is committed to data-driven improvement, collaborative working, and reducing unwarranted variation in order to improve services for patients.
Nick Wood
Joint gynaecology clinical advisor
Nick was appointed as a consultant in 2008 and supported the implementation of minimal access surgery and transition to robotic-assisted surgery for gynaecological cancer. His clinical focus is now on cytoreductive surgery for advanced ovarian cancer and multidisciplinary surgery for recurrence of pelvic cancers.
Nick has held a number of leadership roles at trust level, including chief clinical information officer and divisional medical director. He has also been appointed as regional gynaecology lead for elective surgical recovery for Lancashire and South Cumbria.
Nick has been a longstanding member of Council for the British Gynaecological Cancer Society. He has served as an officer of the BGCS (honorary secretary) and is current chair of the BGCS Commissioning Subgroup. He has also been appointed NHS England National Clinical Lead for gynaecological cancer.
- Former Gynaecology Clinical Lead
David Richmond
Former gynaecology clinical lead and national report author
David was a non-executive director at Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and a member of the Medical Defence Union (MDU) Council and Cases Committee. He retired from the GIRFT programme in 2025.
After graduating from Edinburgh University in 1977 and spending his initial training there, David became a lecturer at Liverpool University in 1983. He spent a year as a senior resident in Adelaide, Australia, before appointment as consultant in 1990 in Liverpool. He was medical director of Liverpool Women’s Hospital from 1993 until 2010 before his election as vice president and then president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (2013 to 2016).
His clinical specialty was in urogynaecology. As chair of the audit committee of the British Society of Urogynaecology (BSUG) he developed the national BSUG surgical database with others. At the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) he was instrumental in delivering the first national outcome report for maternity which is now the National Maternal and Perinatal Audit programme.
He retired from NHS clinical practice in 2017.
- Former Maternity and Gynaecology Clinical Lead
Rob Sherwin
Former maternity and gynaecology clinical lead and national report author
Rob is currently the Medical Director for Specialised Commissioning & Health and Justice in NHS East of England.
He previously worked as a urogynaecologist and the Director of Women’s Health Services at Auckland District Heath Board in New Zealand. and prior to that as a consultant and associate medical director at the Whittington Hospital, London.
- Summary of National Report Findings
GIRFT national report focuses on safety and choice for women using maternity and gynaecology services
Protecting the safety of mothers and their newborn babies, while improving women’s choice and their experience of the NHS, is at the heart of the national report for maternity and gynaecology services from the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme.
Find out more about GIRFT’s data-led approach and best practice resources:
- Maternity and Gynaecology National Report
In September 2021, GIRFT published its national speciality report for Maternity and Gynaecology:
Click above to view the pdf report – the November 2024 version includes an addendum relating to recommendation 9 (page 113).
- Maternity and Gynaecology Report Video
Watch the video about the Maternity and Gynaecology report…
Click above to play the Maternity and Gynaecology national report video
- Gynaecology News
Gynaecology Academy Resources
- Pathways
- Standardised patient consent forms
- Guidance
- Case studies