When Samantha Bruce got her period in the Wollongong Hospital’s Emergency Department earlier this year she asked staff for a pad or tampon.<\/p>\n
“I was given an adult nappy, an incontinence aid,” she said.<\/p>\n
“[My support worker and I] looked at each other in shock, but basically I wore it because I would not have anything else to use.”<\/p>\n
Ms Bruce said she had been denied period products multiple times while in hospital over several years, sometimes given nothing at all.<\/p>\n
“It made me feel small and dehumanised,” she said.<\/p>\n
“As a sexual assault survivor it is very exposing and it makes you feel it like you don’t matter really.”<\/p>\n
In 2022, NSW Health published a bulletin saying public hospital patients who needed period products would be provided with them.<\/p>\n
Ms Bruce is now calling for vending machine-style dispensers of pads, tampons and underwear to be installed in every NSW hospital, an initiative she calls My Monthly Matters.<\/p>\n
It has the support of local psychiatrist Karen Williams.<\/p>\n
She said her patient who was a sexual assault survivor called her after she soiled her pants during an asthma attack in the emergency department.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr Karen Williams said her patient was refused underwear in a NSW hospital. (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n
“When they cut off her underwear, they just left her without any underwear or pants at all,” Dr Williams said.<\/p>\n
“I actually called the hospital up and said ‘please can you give her some pants or underwear’, and they said no.<\/p>\n
“Why do we even have to have this conversation? These are basic things that women need.”<\/p>\n
Last year’s national survey by not-for-profit Share the Dignity heard from almost 43,000 people in NSW.<\/p>\n
Thirteen per cent of them said they were not able to get period products when they asked for them in hospitals.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Samantha Bruce said she and other women were offered incontinence or combine pads instead of period products. (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n
The Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, which runs Wollongong Hospital, said in a statement it provided free period products and had spare clothing available for patients in need.<\/p>\n
“We acknowledge how distressing it can be to not have access to period products when needed,” the district said.<\/p>\n
Ms Bruce said she had received dozens of stories over the years since NSW Health’s 2022 bulletin.<\/p>\n
“One lady, she was in ICU and she got given a gauze when she got her period,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We had women who were left to bleed through, had nothing on, and that’s a situation I’ve been left in before.”<\/p>\n
An ‘obvious’ solution<\/p>\n
Analysis by the Australia Institute estimated the cost of installing and stocking dispensers to be between $1.5 million and $7 million a year.<\/p>\n
Researcher Skye Predevac said the most expensive option would make up less than 0.02 per cent of the total NSW Health budget.<\/p>\n