Rachel Mealey: Patients in NSW hospitals say they haven't been given pads and tampons when they need them. NSW Health promised in 2022 that period products would be made available, but many say that's still not happening. Now, one woman is on a mission to have vending machines in every state hospital provide pads and tampons at no cost. Penelope Burfitt reports.
Penelope Burfitt: This is what you've been offered, something like this? Yeah. For more than three years, the directive has been clear. Free pads and tampons should be provided to people in NSW hospitals who need them. There's even a NSW Health memo that says so. But that's not what Wollongong woman Samantha Bruce has experienced in the emergency department of a NSW hospital.
Samantha Bruce: When I've been at the hospital and I've asked for a period product, I've been given like an incontinence aid. People who need them for continence aids, 100 percent, but they're not fit for purpose. And it's just it's completely inappropriate.
Penelope Burfitt: 13 percent of the more than 42,000 NSW women surveyed by Not For Profit share the dignity in 2024, so they have the same experience where they were denied pads and tampons in hospital. Samantha says it undermines patients' sense of dignity.
Samantha Bruce: Some of the stories that I heard, a lady, she was in ICU and she got given a gauze when she got her periods and was told to wait for her family to bring her pads.
Penelope Burfitt: Now she's campaigning for vending machines dispensing free pads, tampons and underwear to be installed in every hospital in the state.
Samantha Bruce: Started promoting it to like MPs and stuff.
Penelope Burfitt: In September, she put the proposal to state health minister Ryan Park's office, along with new cost modelling done by think tank the Australia Institute researcher Skye Predevac.
Skye Predevac: At a high watermark, it would cost about seven million dollars a year and likely much lower than that, which would pay for vending machines as a one off cost and the ongoing cost of providing period products in hospitals to everyone who need them. That's really about one percent of one percent of the New South Wales state budget.
Penelope Burfitt: The proposal has been endorsed by the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, which says it would give women autonomy and dignity. Local psychiatrist Dr. Karen Williams is also supportive. After seeing the impact firsthand, her patient who'd suffered a sexual assault soiled her underwear during an asthma attack in the hospital.
Karen Williams: They just left her without any pants on at all. Why do we even have to have this conversation? These are basic things that women need. This is sort of asking government and, you know, asking the health department to recognise that this makes trauma worse. This makes symptoms worse.
Penelope Burfitt: Asked about the proposal, New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park says it's something he will consider.
Ryan Park: Can't give an answer around whether we will roll that out at the moment. What I can say is that there's an expectation from me that these products should be available to women when they access our health services.
Penelope Burfitt: For Samantha, it's been a long fight, but not one she's giving up.
Samantha Bruce: This is a very tangible way and tangible support you can provide to women that will reduce certain parts of their lives.
Rachel Mealey: Former patient Samantha Bruce ending that report by Penelope Burfitt.