Britain’s first specialist clinic for child victims of female genital mutilation is to open in London in a major breakthrough in combating the barbaric practice.
The clinic, at University College Hospital, will start next month and give medical treatment and psychological help to girls aged from babies to18 who have been mutilated here or overseas.
It will also provide expert advice when girls are at risk, and examinations in cases where police and social workers are unsure about whether cutting has occurred.
In a further move designed to bring those responsible for FGM to justice, consultants at the clinic will also take medical photographs of victims’ injuries and testify in court to ensure that prosecutions can be brought.
Announcing the new clinic, Deborah Hodes, a consultant paediatrician at University College Hospital, said that the decision to begin the specialist service had been prompted by the “increasing” number of cases that she and colleagues were receiving.
She said some involved girls with partially sewn-up vaginas who needed surgery. Other victims were suffering months of nightmares and “flashbacks” about the day when they were mutilated.
Further problems included infections caused by scar tissue and, for older girls, the risk of pain during sexual intercourse and complications during pregancy and childbirth.
Ms Hodes said such cases showed the serious harm caused by FGM and pledged that the clinic would seek to improve the lives of existing victims and protect others from suffering the abuse.
She added: “The physical and pyschological impact can be terrible. This is violence against women. Some girls suffer from post-traumatic stress and if they have been sewn there will be scar tissue that could get torn if they are dancers, gymnasts, ride bikes or are active in other ways.
“It can also cause infections and problems later on when they want to get married. So there are complications that are both immediate and long- term.”
Ms Hodes, who will run the new clinic with Professor Sarah Creighton, a consulant gynaecologist, already specialises in treating child victims of sex abuse. She emphasised that patients would be given “sensitive” treatment, examinations and advice that would show understanding of their cultural background. Surgery and counselling would also be provided when needed.
She said an important part of the clinic’s work would also be to assist police and social workers in protecting girls and taking court action to prevent mutilation and bring those responsible for inflicting it to justice. She said that both she and Professor Creighton would be ready to provide witness statements and give expert testimony in court. Specialist medical photographs would also be taken of victims’ injuries to prove when cutting and sewing, which is not always easily detected, had occurred.
Ms Hodes said the clinic would also be able to assess siblings of FGM victims to determine whether they had been mutilated or might be at risk in the future. Staff also hoped that the help provided to girls and families attending the clinic would change attitudes.
She said the clinic could play an important “safeguarding” role and added: “We think it will make a huge difference. If patients are treated sympathetically and properly it will improve their physical and psychological well-being.
“We can’t put back what’s been cut, but we can improve girls’ lives. It will lead to prevention too because hopefully they will tell their friends that it’s illegal, it’s a bad thing.”
The majority of the girls who have already been seen by Ms Hodes and her colleagues have been referred to University College Hospital by either the Met or social care staff.
The new clinic, which will hold monthly sessions at the hospital, will continue to receive such cases and hopes its expertise will be sought by police and child protection officials from across the capital. It will also treat other girls referred to it after going voluntarily to their GP to seek help.
Today’s news follows the recent “Girl Summit” hosted by David Cameron to tackle FGM and other problems such as early marriage that affect young females around the world. Research by London’s City University and campaign group Equality Now estimates 137,000 women, including 10,000 under 15, who were born in overseas countries that practise FGM now live in England and Wales.
The Met has warned that it believes cutting is still taking place in the UK.