Can someone explain that business about sanitary products and hospital workers

[Ohmycron]

I don’t understand why they just can’t take a big pack in in case they run short like everyone else does

Have I missed something.

@boymum88

Surely it should just be made law that Sano is provide in each staff loo, no matter what sector. All women no matter what job / walk of life should have access to products if needed. Most will never use them but for that one women in that work place would make a world of difference. And yes I'm a hcp, I can't just nip out of theatre to chance my products if I'm scrubbed. I am however lucky that my department is not big so can nip to my Locker, still dosnt stop people shouting for you, while your sat on the loo. "Name come on where briefing, they are all waiting'

Absolutely.

I'm a solicitor and private sector and well paid etc. But, I've had to pull some impromptu all-nighters due to client demands. My male colleagues certainly never had to worry that they might start bleeding in front of the client at 2 am.

Sure, I should be prepared and my DH often makes the comment that "surely after 30 plus years you should be prepared" . But why not just make it a standard hygienic amenity in a public toilet?

IT'S TIME. We need to make some fucking demands.

@Mookie81

How many of them vote Tory as they 'know what a woman is'.
Fat lot of good that knowledge is doing here eh?!

Yep.

@Ohmycron I'm actually struggling to believe that you're a woman.

You are 100% not an HCP.

@Ohmycron

Really? Seems unlikely !! Surely you take a piss somewhere

I work in a care home and it's so badly understaffed that it is often just me and a senior taking care of 15 residents in just one section, and only 2 of those are able to stand or walk. I can certainly believe that NHS workers do not find the time for a pee break as they are in a similar situation. I've worked most of my shifts straight through constantly telling myself that I'll pop for my break after changing Mrs Smith only to find Mrs Jones is calling for assistance. And when I'm finished with Mrs Jones, the lunch trolley has arrived or someone else is calling for my help. Add to the fact that I may be in a completely different section of the home to the staff room, I may not be able to leave the secure area to go get my sanitary protection without someone coming to take over. Loo roll is provided because both men and women need it. Freely available Sanitary protection isn't provided as it's only us womenfolk who need it.

I really hope common sense prevails and sanitary products are provided for hospital staff.

@SergeiL

It’s shocking that women are not supporting other women here.

Think outside your own small sphere of experience.

Jeez.

This in spades!

Because I like numbers, I've played around with a scenario. Obviously the figures aren't accurate but it may give an idea.

A quick search suggests that there's ~1million women in the NHS.
If half of them had periods (allowing for implants/ post menopausal/ post surgery etc) and we said their periods lasted an average of 5 days, that's 83,000 on any given day.
An estimated 10-20% of these women will have menorrhagia, so let's be conservative and call it 10,000 women each day.
Then let's say that 50% of women are lucky enough to be off that day. There's 5000 women in the workplace each and every day who may urgently need a pad change.
If 10% of these women have an extra 5 minutes walk (and we've heard that lots have more) then 500 x 10 mins (there and back) = 83hr 20min each day wasted on NHS women walking an extra distance. That's a shed load of tampax right there.

@AffIt, I suspect OP is something else entirely....

@caringcarer

I have never seen a ward without a nurses station. Surely just pop sanpro behind nurses station. Toilets on every ward.

I don't work on a ward therefore I don't have a nurses station. It might shock you to know that not all clinical staff in the NHS are nurses working on wards.

@simonisnotme

Im not convinced that they are so busy all the time that they cant go for a wee

Believe it, it's true.

I know this isn't the point, at all, but I can't recommend period pants highly enough. Even on the heaviest day I get 8/10 hours out of one pair

I found it hard as a home carer sometimes. Yes I could carry tampons but it was the time to go to the loo! 15 min calls, no travel time and toilets I really didn't want to have to use

It should be supplied. At my workplace we all bring in stuff we don't need/want so our toilets have hand cream, hand wash (nice stuff!) and on the bag hook on the door I've put a fabric bag which has tampons, pads and liners in. There's also a pack of baby wipes. We all share so it's not unusual for someone to leave unwanted shampoo or something and say help yourself and take it home

God forbid some women get given a free sanitary pad/tampon every now and again to help them keep clean and comfortable at work.

Heaven forbid someone else get a free 5p 'gift' if I don't also get it.

I didn’t get it at first as I only saw a headline, but reading about pads in lockers half a building away it makes complete sense.

My eldest is a nurse with erratic periods, she wears tena lady knickers ( Asda own brand ) each shift for protection, she swears by them.
It's absolutely outrageous that the female staff are in this position.
No woman should be put in a situation where they can't change their sanpro as needed and instead face feeling humiliated and embarrassed if an "accident " occurs.
Or spend their time worrying about it.
It's disgraceful and needs tackling.
We have enough to worry and think about and this is yet another turn of the screw of pressure!
Even if your periods aren't a worry for you, or you're not in a situation where you can't change your sanpro at will, surely you have some empathy and sympathy for those who do? Christ, I've known some men show more empathy than some of the women on this thread!

@SockFluffInTheBath

I didn’t get it at first as I only saw a headline, but reading about pads in lockers half a building away it makes complete sense.

Does it though? Why can't they be kept in staff toilets or in the staff room or under the ward desk?

Loving the people mansplaining on social media that we should be more organised, we just need to make sure we have spares in our handbags. Because of course you always see doctors and nurses carrying their handbags around with them, they don't get in the way of dealing with emergencies and serious illness one jot.

I'm also in a school, rather than NHS, but I find it hard to believe that after the last two years, and the constant threads about teachers, their working conditions, and the horrendous situations in most schools that anyone reading this thread is dismissive of the facts that some people do not get breaks, do not get to just pop to the loo, or even get to eat or drink for most of the day.
I have colleagues that flood through both super tampon and night time pad in about an hour. It's horrendous for them when they have a full teaching day (no time between our 1st and 2nd periods, not 3rd and 4th).
Last Friday I started work at 7:45, finished at 5pm. I managed to visit the loo once, had one glass of water, and no food all day.
This is normal for many of my us.

As for those claiming schools are awash with sanpro- fuck off with your ignorance. There may be provision for pupils. Staff don't use pupils' loos for safeguarding reasons. Most of the time there isn't even soap in our loos (even in a bloody pandemic! I was actually providing liquid soap for the loo closest my room for over 12 months from March 2020. This was with us being told to sanitise our hands at the beginning of each lesson, the end of each lesson etc etc).

I worked as an industrial contract cleaner whilst at college. We were often bussed to random sites, factories, industrial complexes, whatever. Our uniforms didn't have pockets, because we might steal . Some places we'd have a locker, other places our stuff would be on the mini bus, the sites were often vast. Occasionally there'd be a pad machine in the loos at an exorbitant price, but often not. I'd have to stuff a spare pad or two in my bra or roll a tampon up my sleeve, it was pathetic and horrible if you were working hard and getting sweaty, with a uncomfortable soggy spare pad in your bra. No woman should have to deal with this crap.

Can't they put a pad or a tampon in their pocket?

I'm not clinical, but still NHS. On our lovely 11 hour night shifts I wear period knickers because bluntly I often don't get my first break for 6 hours, which means it's not always possible to get to a loo on time (have to take off PPE and wash hands first).

It's a perfectly reasonable request for sanitary products in loos, most of us are finding it hard to have breaks and even if it makes things easier for just a few of us, it's worth it. What do people think we're going to do, fill our pockets with tampons and sell them on the black market?

Sure, I should be prepared and my DH often makes the comment that "surely after 30 plus years you should be prepared" hmm.

The problem is after 30+ years things often go tits up and those easily manageable periods turn into a raging torrent, that doesn't always turn up on the date you've ticked in the calendar. My DH wouldn't survive that kind of comment!

@Ohmycron

I work in a school where we are utterly awash with sanitary protection that everyone reckons all the kids need and take up is so minimal

There could be a couple of reasons for this...

1. children at school get regular breaks and carry a bag around with them containing san pro

2. those that don't have san pro are too embarrassed to take the free ones incase someone notices it and they get ridiculed for it. So they make do with loo roll stuffed in their knickers instead

I'm an anaesthetist.

I went out of theatres on Friday to do a "quick GA case" in another department. The other department is a 10 minutes + walk away and up 6 floors. My locker is in theatres.

I was away for 4 hours. I didn't get lunch until 15:30 due to this and developed abdominal pain due to bladder distension as I needed the loo so badly while the surgeons were operating but there wasn't anyone suitably qualified to leave the patient with while I went to the loo. It was also too far for one of my colleagues to come and relieve me (and no-one was free anyway).

If it had been a different time of the month I'd have had a really issue.

I've started doubling up san pro at work as I had so many accidents - in my case these are mostly related to not being able to get out of theatre.

I have also been questioned more times than I care to remember by a "helpful" male colleague about why I'm taking my bag with me when I"m only popping to the loo...

@OverByYer

Some comments on this thread beggar belief, the whole ' well I manage ok so what's wrong with those of you that can't?' attitude. Pretty depressing actually.

Exactly. It seems like a very easily solvable problem. Make a range of sanitary products available in toilets and keep them all topped up.

Some of us can't go for hours without needing a wee. I go every hour or two and would literally wet myself if I couldn't access a toilet for more than 3-4 hours.

Which is fortunate that I don't work in a hospital, because I would be unable to not have access to a toilet. Or I would have pushed for medical help, because it would have been life limiting instead of a moderate annoyance.

@SusannaQueen

Sure, I should be prepared and my DH often makes the comment that "surely after 30 plus years you should be prepared" hmm.

The problem is after 30+ years things often go tits up and those easily manageable periods turn into a raging torrent, that doesn't always turn up on the date you've ticked in the calendar. My DH wouldn't survive that kind of comment!

Exactly. I'm perimenopausal and have gone from regular light periods to random intervals between 20 and 70 days (I have a tracker app) and very heavy flow.

Fortunately I WFH most of the time, but if I'm out and about and know I wouldn't be able to get to a toilet quickly, I usually wear a 'precautionary pad' to avoid an embarrassing mess.

I've also put packs of sanitary protection, clean pants and wipes in my car and work PPE bag, as I'm not always out in my own car. But there's only so much you can do to 'be prepared' and there's always a risk I could still be caught out. I really feel for the women who this would be a daily worry.