The charities statistics showed there were almost 9,000 times when a girl or woman was assessed at a doctor’s surgery or hospital. Worldwide. It is estimated that 200 million women and girls are affected by FGM.
These figures were released to raise awareness and mark the international day of zero tolerance to FGM (which took place on February 7th).
The FGM process, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), includes the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
Plan International UK have warned that the figures are once again a reminder of the global prevalence of FGM.
The charity analysed NHS figures from between April 2015 and March 2016, showing that a patient was assessed every 61 minutes. On average, among those who attended, a victim of FGM is newly identified every 92 minutes.
This means that a woman or girl has had their case recorded by the NHS for the first time. It could be that they were cut years previously but it hadn’t come to the attention of medical professionals sooner.
Detective Chief Inspector Leanne Pook commented: “Each application is carefully considered and brought only in cases where they are deemed to be at risk. We have one active FGM investigation ongoing at the moment, but the majority of our work in this area focuses on safeguarding referrals.
“This means working in partnership with our colleagues in local authorities, health and education to share information and visit and support families with children deemed to be at risk of FGM.”
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