The U.K.’s National Health Service has taken another step toward purging transgender ideology from hospitals.
According to new guidance published on October 15, trans-identifying patients will now be placed in hospital wards that accord to their sex rather than their self-professed “gender identity.”
This is a direct reversal of NHS England’s 2019 guidance, which formally instructed hospitals to place trans-identifying patients in wards that accorded to their “gender identity” rather than their sex. This reversal was not voluntary; the new guidance makes it crystal clear that the NHS was forced to make the changes based on the court rulings:
The Equality Act 2010 protects everyone in Britain from discrimination based on 9 protected characteristics. To support providers of single-sex services, including NHS organisations, to interpret the Equality Act, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has issued a revised Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations. In line with the Supreme Court’s judgment in For Women Scotland Ltd v. The Scottish Ministers, which clarified the meaning of sex in the Equality Act 2010, the code of practice says that single-sex services, such as hospital accommodation, should be provided on the basis of “biological sex.”
Therefore, to maintain hospital accommodation as single sex under the Equality Act 2010, trans people and others with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment should be accommodated in line with their biological sex, while also ensuring that: (i) clinical needs are met, and (ii) privacy, dignity and safety are maintained for all, including other patients sharing that accommodation.
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Previously, trans-identifying patients could utilize single-sex accommodations that did not accord to their sex, but that, too, has been reversed. NHS staff have now been told that they may only consider alternatives “such as single‑occupancy or mixed-sex facilities with individual lockable rooms” which “can be provided to allow access to facilities in a way that respects privacy and dignity and supports inclusion of all staff.”
After the 2019 guidance implementing gender ideology took effect, nurses faced discipline and even suspension for “misgendering” patients (including, in one particularly egregious instance, a trans-identifying pedophile); for objecting to trans-identifying men in their changerooms; and for saying they felt “unsafe” with trans-identifying males watching them undress. Some nurses who complained were told that they needed “re-education,” and pro-LGBT groups demanded that they become more accepting. Now, those nurses have won.
LGBT groups – which showed zero compassion or understanding for the women expected to share private spaces with visibly male trans-identifying patients or staff – are outraged. According to TransActual and the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance: “Forcing trans patients into the wrong wards is unnecessary and unsafe – this is a policy that places politics above patient care.” The National Survivor User Network: “Trans patients deserve better – to be supported in spaces that align with their gender, to develop trusting relationships with healthcare staff, and to be free from medical discrimination.”
The women who have fought long and hard for this return to sanity, however, were thrilled with the new guidance – although cautious due to the NHS’s previous track record. Bethany Hutchison, a nurse who successfully sued her hospital after a male was permitted to use the female changerooms, called it “clear and necessary guidance” but noted that “the test is now whether NHS trusts will actually follow it.”
Maya Forstater of Sex Matters concurred, calling the guidance “a momentous shift back to reality” while noting that “NHS patient data is a mess, with potentially thousands of trans-identifying people recorded as the opposite sex.”
“This is welcome and long-overdue guidance,” said Andrea Williams of the Christian Legal Centre, which has defended medical personnel persecuted for speaking out. “It has taken a long-fought battle, led by courageous women such as the Darlington nurses, to put biological reality back at the heart of NHS policy. But an important gap remains. The guidance does not give NHS staff the clarity and protection they need over pronoun use.”
“Jennifer Melle was investigated, disciplined and referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council after declining to use female pronouns for a biologically male patient,” Williams noted. “She was eventually cleared, but no nurse should have to endure that ordeal for using biologically accurate language. NHS England must now make clear that healthcare professionals cannot be compelled to use preferred pronouns or penalised for declining to express beliefs about gender identity that they do not hold.”