There is a link below to an open letter, signed by the Chief Medical Officer, the Director of Nursing and the Royal Colleges and sent to all health care professionals, following recent media coverage about FGC. It makes interesting reading - we have been saying for some time that the guidelines around FGC need to be more widely publicised.

Please disseminate widely to your own networks of health professionals including nurses, midwives, GPs, social workers – anyone you can think of.

To be honest, none of it is “rocket science” – what the letter does is bring attention to the fact that the issue is happening in the UK and that health workers have a duty to ask questions and particularly act to safeguard those at risk:

It is important that professionals do not let the fear of being branded “racist” or discriminatory weaken the protection required by vulnerable girls or women.

We think it’s important also that health care workers understand that FGC happens in diverse geographical areas – don’t forget that 91% of Egyptian women go through FGM but also girls in regions like Indonesia, Malaysia, Kurdistan, parts of India and Pakistan – this is not just a sub-saharan African issue.

In many developing countries, medical workers may be the ones carrying out FGM – the global figure is that 18% of all cases are done “medically” – let’s not make the UK one of these countries.