Nottingham Hospitals becomes UK’s first Menopause Friendly NHS Trust

Here at Nottingham Hospitals Charity we want to ensure that staff across Nottingham Hospitals feel supported throughout their career, which is why we’ve recently worked with the Staff Wellbeing team to ensure that staff who are going through the menopause have a place where they can turn, should they need advice.

We spoke to Jenny Good from NUH Staff Wellbeing about the newly funded programme: “We were receiving lots of requests from staff and management enquiring about what support was there for them when they were going through the menopause, and to begin with there wasn’t any support in place. That’s when we reached out to see how we could support staff.

“Three years after we launched our scheme we’ve been awarded with accreditation to say that we’re a Menopause Friendly Employer, and thanks to generosity of the Charity, we’ve been able to fund workshops and supplies as well as applying for the accreditation.”

Evelyn Dickey, Menopause Friendly’s Independent Panel member spoke about the accreditation: “We’ve thoroughly assessed all aspects of the excellent work Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust have done. Their menopause programme clearly demonstrates that providing colleagues with the right awareness, education and support is important to them.

“They’ve created a culture enabling people to talk about menopause openly, launched a comprehensive policy, regularly provide expert training and engaged their colleagues, including creating a strong network of menopause advocates. We're delighted to recognise them as the UK's first accredited Menopause Friendly NHS Trust.”

The majority of Nottingham Hospitals staff are female and fit within the age bracket of when menopause might occur. Symptoms of menopause include hot flushes, difficulty sleeping, headaches and mood changes. When working in a busy environment such as ward or office, it is important for staff to be able to discuss any difficulties or issues they may be experiencing.

Jenny continued: “We want to support staff and remove the taboo about the subject. We felt really strongly about our workforce and wanted to make sure they were comfortable within the working environment.

“We’ve got a really comprehensive policy which allows managers to support staff and give staff confidence to talk to their managers about what they are going through. We’ve also provided adjustments including lightweight uniform options for those who may be experiencing hot flushes, and other amenities all to make sure staffs are able to continue to work whilst feeling comfortable on the wards.”

The support is open to any member of Team NUH and more information can be found here.