A new federal petition is demanding that all public hospitals have a mandatory supply of sanitary items including pads to be accessible to people who menstruate when they need them during a hospital stay.
Share The Dignity — an organisation that aims to support women, girls and people who menstruate through times of crisis and associated period poverty — has turned its focus on the public healthcare system for its new #PadUpPublicHealth campaign. In five days, the federal petition has garnered over 24,000 signatures.
According to the organisation, public hospitals in Australia aren’t currently required to have supplies of period products for patients who menstruate. That means some patients who have found themselves in hospital for an emergency have been stuck without a pad or tampon when their period has appeared suddenly.
Thousands of period-havers have shared their experiences with Share The Dignity to bolster the campaign. Some recounted times of having to cobble together makeshift pads from dressings and adult nappies or being forced to simply free bleed through their hospital gowns.
Others told stories of having doctors, nurses and staff kindly giving them pads from their own personal stash when they’ve found themselves in the hospital right as their cycle kicked off.
Though some public hospitals do have sanitary items on-hand for patients who are stuck without any supplies when the crimson tide rolls in, it’s evidently not a mandatory thing right across the board.
Share The Dignity’s founder Rochelle Courtenay said it’s pushing to hit 100,000 signatures by the petition’s cutoff date on March 16. In a press release, she said the issue should be “much, much higher on the government’s agenda” as dignity around menstruation is a human right.
“Women’s and girls’ ability to safely manage their period is a basic human right,” she said.
“Menstruation is not a choice, and women and girls should not have to worry about how they will manage their period at any point, but especially when they are sick and vulnerable.”
The organisation has previously helped to improve the situation of sanitary item supplies by installing 20 vending machines in hospitals across the country, which it estimates will cost around $300k over the next three years to maintain and keep stocked up.
