LONDON — Beginning this summer, women and girls at hospitals across England will be offered free tampons and other sanitary products, health officials announced on Sunday, in what advocates called “a big step forward” in the effort to end so-called period poverty.

The decision by National Health Service England comes less than a year after the British Medical Association noted that hospitals across Britain had “often poor and inconsistent” practices of offering sanitary products and called on the government to provide them for patients’ “health, dignity and well-being.”

Simon Stevens, the chief executive for N.H.S. England, said in a statement, “It’s fundamental that we give patients the best experience possible during what can be a stressful time of their life.” Providing sanitary products, he added, “can prevent unnecessary embarrassment and leave people to focus on their recovery.”

The free sanitary products will be offered in all medical settings in England overseen by the National Health Service.