Federal push to get ‘vital’ health item in hospitals

Words and Producer: Bianca Farmakis

are all basic health care items you assume you’d be able to access in a hospital. But thousands of Australians have drawn attention to one item rarely provided in the wards.

Sanitary items

remain widely absent in hospitals across the country. Patients have shared stories detailing the embarrassment and humiliation they have faced over having to use unsuitable alternatives, including wound dressings, incontinence products and even adult diapers.

Share the Dignity

has made a federal push to address the problem, with their campaign calling all Australian hospitals to supply free sanitary items to patients.

'THOUSANDS OF STORIES'

Share the Dignity Founder Rochelle Courtenay says the testimonies gathered by the charity revealed many patients were forced to sit in their own blood, or use unsuitable alternatives after being admitted to hospital.

Submission:

The charity currently provides vending machines in 20 hospitals across Australia, providing free access to sanitary items. Still, Courtenay says it’s not enough to address the problem. Share the Dignity estimates providing free sanitary items would cost $7-9million annually.

While hospitals individually can choose to supply sanitary items, Courtenay says they are not “state or federally mandated” and patients often face a “lottery type situation” when attending a facility. Visitors and nurses said they regularly provided their own items to patients in hospital.

It causes humiliation and shame when people are not given access to a very fundamental human right. It’s just a sexist, archaic way of being — if you can get band aids, panadol and a CAT scan in hospital, why simply, can’t you get a pad?

“ Rochelle Courtenay Share the Dignity Founder

Submission:

'UNEXPECTED TIMING'

Aged care worker Isabella Bailey recalls nearly going “septic” after being unable to access pads during a hospital stint in 2018. Bailey, who suffers from polycystic ovaries and adenomyosis — a condition that causes severe, prolonged menstrual bleeding — was admitted unexpectedly where she had an ovarian cyst rupture.

I was told it was my fault I was bleeding through my hospital gown and that I should have prepared better… you don’t prepare to go to the emergency room. I had to use layers of toilet paper because no one would provide a pad.

“ Isabella Bailey Aged Care worker

'PAD UP PUBLIC HEALTH'

Share the Dignity has launched a federal petition for the mandatory provision of menstrual health products in Australian hospitals. The petition calls for “menstrual hygiene” to be seen “as a human right and a critical link in achieving gender equality.” It currently has over 45,000 signatures.

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