Sanitary products should be free in hospitals, doctors say
The BMA estimates it would cost the NHS £120,000 a year to provide free sanitary products to any patient that needs them.
Saturday 2 February 2019 12:37, UK
Doctors are calling for free sanitary products to be provided in hospitals to help work toward the end of period poverty.
The doctors' union the British Medical Association (BMA) has found 42% of hospital trusts either do not provide free sanitary products to patients, provide only small amounts, or just some for emergencies, with many expecting the patient to provide their own as quickly as possible.
This is despite some hospitals giving out razors and shaving foam to ensure male patients can shave while on a ward.
The BMA put a rough estimate of the annual cost to supply products to inpatients at £120,000 a year.
It sent freedom of information requests to every hospital trust and health board in the UK and received responses from 187.
The union argued that towels and tampons are a basic human need and should be freely available at hospitals to all patients who could need them, pointing out that some patients end up in hospital unexpectedly or don't have a support network to help bring supplies.
The BMA has now written to the NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens to demand action is taken to ensure patient experience of care is not jeopardised by non-availability of essential items.
Gabby Edlin, who founded Bloody Good Period, told Paste BN: "So often, because of the taboo and stigma around menstruation, I think people in authority just forget to deal with it, I don't think it's an active discrimination but it's shrouded in silence and forgotten.
"We work with refugees and asylum seekers and we have heard that women resorting to using rags, bits of tissue, socks in some cases.
"Or they don't leave their house all day, not able to travel or try to find work, being basically a prisoner in their own home because of lack of access to products.
"At Bloody Good Period we believe the products should be provided [by the state]. It's an essential, like toilet paper which is available all throughout public places."
Bloody Good Period is a project which provides supplies for refugees, asylum seekers and those who can't afford sanitary products in London and Leeds.
Ms Edlin added that she believes people haven't "thought about" menstruation and so it's been forgotten about, unlike shaving products which are available to men.
She said: "It is still taboo for women but we know it's not the case that only men make decisions and only women suffer.
"Even those in power sometimes feel that they can't speak up about it because it's somehow dirty and disgusting, but it's just a natural bodily process, there's nothing disgusting about it at all."
The BMA research found that hospitals which do supply tampons and towels often only do so on the gynaecology or maternity wards.
Only 22% of hospitals said they could be easily bought on site by a patient.
Some trusts admitted to spending nothing on sanitary products for inpatients. Those that did had an average spend of 7p per bed per year.
Mita Dhullipala, BMA medical students committee co-chair, said: "Period supplies are essential but they can be expensive. It is unacceptable that there are still people who cannot access them, usually those who are vulnerable or on low incomes.
"Many resort to using toilet paper, scraps of fabric, or sometimes nothing at all. Period poverty can be stopped by making sure these products are available to those who can't afford them."