SCOTS MEDICS TREATED 230 CASES OF FGM
26 Sunday Mail Medics in Scotland’s biggest cities have treated victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) on more than 230 occasions in the past two years.
The statist ics were revealed by Scottish Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson, who said the “barbaric” practice must be wiped out.
Responses to a freedom of information request from the party show that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde ( NHSGGC) recorded treating women identified with FGM on at least 138 occasions in 2017 and 2018.
In NHS Lothian, which covers Edinburgh, 93 occasions were noted over that two- year per iod. NHSGGC stressed that it could not confirm the “true prevalence” of FGM in the health board area because some patients may have been admitted to hospital for an unrelated issue.
It is also possible there are “signif icant numbers” of patients with FGM who have not been admit ted to hospital, the board said. The figures emerged after the UN’s International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM on Wednesday.
The mother of a threeyear-old girl became the first to be found guilty of FGM in the UK in February. The Ugandan woman, 37, from London, was found guilty of cutting her daughter.
NHSGGC said: “We have no conf irmation FGM is being practised in Scotland, however, there is intelligence that cutting does happen elsewhere in the UK.
“There is a clinic at the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital, run by the Special Needs in Pregnancy Service, which sees all women who have disclosed FGM.”