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The benefits of this project
Benefits for Your Patients
- Access to reusable sanitary products decreases inequality for those people affected, relieving regular anxiety through reduced financial burden and reducing potential missed school, work or other activities.
- This has significant mental health as well potential physical benefits if menstruation is preventing physical activities.
Benefits for Your Practice
- Providing reusable products and ensuring independence to girls and women in this way could prevent other health conditions from developing, with potential of both physical and mental health benefits.
Benefits for The Planet
- Reusable sanitary products have a much lower carbon footprint, reduce plastic pollution and long-term are more cost effective.
Opportunity for improvement
- Health inequalities include both unequal access to health care and unequal access to a healthy life. Examples of this unequal access are access to clean air, safe housing, available transport, and essential resources such as sanitary products for women. Period poverty is a real and neglected public health issue in the UK.
- As the cost of living continues to bite, an ActionAid poll revealed that 21% (more than one in five) women and people who menstruated in the UK in 2023 are struggling to afford period products - up 12% from 2022. This amounts to an estimated 2.8 million people, putting around one million more people into period poverty versus last year. Of those affected by period poverty, 41% kept sanitary pads or tampons in for longer, and 8% re-used disposable pads, which can be a dangerous method of period management. 37% said they had used tissues or cotton wool instead of sanitary products in the last 12 months. 13% used socks or other clothing, and 9% resorted to using paper or newspaper. More than a quarter of survey respondents (28%) said they were able to rely on period products available at school or work, but for 17% they stayed at home. This means missing out on school, work, exercising or socialising, all of which can have wider implications for their mental health, wellbeing, and future. Not being able to afford sanitary items is an unacceptable face of an unequal society.
- In addition, plastic period products are a major contributor to microplastics in our rivers. A single pack of regular disposable pads contains as much plastic as five carrier bags. In the UK, up to 2 billion period products are flushed annually, polluting waterways.
- This project aims to secure funding to distribute free or discountable reusable sanitary products via organisations locally for improved women’s health, reduced health inequalities and environmental savings (see disclaimers).
How to carry out this project
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Work with local community organisations to secure micro grants to develop the project.
A quick option might be the local umbrella organisation for community sector organisations. Your social prescriber or health coach may be able to help here. An alternative would be to contact your Public Health team in your local council who might have small pots of funding.
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Decide who you would like to work with inside and out your practice
Perhaps ask at a practice or PCN meeting.
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Decide who other stakeholders might be.
E.g. local college; local community hub; local mental health, girls, women or homelessness charity. Collaboration is key to optimise support such as distributing reusable sanitary products (or information) to the most vulnerable community members.
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Co-design your project with the stakeholders
This can be more straightforward and simple than you think, as they will probably be very keen to work with primary care.
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Decide what your metric of success might be (how many distributed; other partnerships developed; positive feedback received etc)
Helpful resources:
Period product scheme for schools and colleges:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/period-products-in-schools-and-colleges/period-product-scheme-for-schools-and-colleges-in-england
An example of a similar initiative in the Somerset Area:
Plastic Free. Period – Green and Healthy Frome – Green and Healthy Frome
How to scale this project up or down
| Please note - Use of this project requires NetworkPLUS membership. If you would like to share this project with others, please invite them to purchase their own membership—access must not be shared with non-members. |
Use shared expertise at PCN and locality meetings to ensure all practices can learn from each other locally. Your project could also be shared with your ICB (England) or Cluster, Health Board (Scotland or Wales) or GP federation, Health Trust (Northern Ireland), so the learning can be shared and the project easily implemented by other practices too.
Have you completed this QIP?
Tell us a little about your project and enter your data in order to generate a certificate showing the probable cost savings and other benefits. This project may help with CQC evidence submission (see disclaimers).
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