Episode
Challenging systemic inequity in Healthcare with Neelam Heera-Shergill
- Podcast
- WomenKind Collective
- Published
- May 23, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3246
- Processing state
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- https://shows.acast.com/womenkind-collective/episodes/the-fight-for-equity-in-healthcare-with-neelam-heera-shergil
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Summary
Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810 Our guest today is Neelam Heera-Shergill, founder and CEO of Cysters, a community-led charity with national reach working at the intersection of menstrual health, maternal care and mental well-being. When we talk about gender bias in healthcare, we're really talking about a system that has historically been designed for men. But what happens when you exist outside that narrow template in more ways than one? Neelam knows that story intimately, and has built something extraordinary in response to it. Rooted in grassroots activism and collective liberation, Cysters exists to challenge the stigma, systemic barriers and cultural silence that prevents so many people particularly those from ethnically diverse communities from getting the care they deserve. Neelam's work spans advocacy, creative storytelling, policy influence and community building, all driven by a simple but radical belief: that menstrual and maternal care should never be a privilege. In this conversation we explore: · How Cysters began with one voice and one lived experience and the moment Neelam knew she had to turn it into something bigger. · Why the framing of ethnically diverse communities as "hard to reach" says far more about the system than the community and what Cysters' evidence actually shows. · The real problem at the heart of healthcare inequity: "a lack of listening, referring, believing." · Through our research for our book, we found that women from deprived areas and marginal…