NHS England Single Sex Guidance.
Medway Pride CIC are very diappointed with the new NHS Guidance on single sex wards policy.
We believe the policy is unworkable due to many factors involved in the delivery of healthcare, keeping individuals information private and protecting the safety of everyone. We have raised these issues with goverment representatives and will continue to advicate for the protection of trans people when accessing NHS services, that they are treated with respect for their lived identity and protected from discrimination as a protected group ‘Gender Reasignment’ in the 2010 Equality Act, and their Human Rights are respected.
Joint statement from TransActual and Trans+ Solidarity Alliance
NHS England’s new ‘single sex’ hospital wards policy risks relegating trans people in England to wards that do not align with our gender, causing harm, distress and increased clinical risk for trans patients.
The new guidance instructs hospitals that wherever services or facilities (like toilets and showers) are provided on a single sex basis, they should be provided on the basis of “biological sex”, with trans patients accommodated either on wards that reflect our sex assigned at birth or in side rooms where these are available. It also instructs hospitals to record and report any situations where this guidance is breached.
However, trans patients can still be accommodated on wards that align with our gender on the basis of “clinical need”, and there remain many areas of hospital care that are not segregated on the basis of sex (for example intensive care, and high dependency care).
It is unclear how this guidance will be implemented in practice, but in addition to forcing vulnerable trans patients into inappropriate and unsafe spaces, it risks outing and humiliating trans patients who already tend to avoid seeking necessary medical care due our fear of medical discrimination. It will also undermine patient/clinician relationships by turning healthcare staff into the gender police.
Forcing trans patients into the wrong wards is unnecessary and unsafe – this is a policy that places politics above patient care. It fundamentally undermines our rights as trans patients as well as the principles set out in the NHS Constitution.
We urge NHS trusts and ICBs to ensure that any changes to local policy and practice centre patient needs and clinical standards first and foremost. Remember your constitutional duty to each and every NHS patient, your commitment to inclusion, and your values.
For the trans people reading this: you are entitled to the same standards of NHS care as any other patient. Talk to your doctor and/or nurse about any fears you have around hospital admission, and how the right decision about your ward placement will result in better health outcomes for you. Please do not delay seeking the healthcare you need.
NHS England also published guidance around facilities for staff – we will review both documents in depth and publish detailed analysis soon.
Information from https://translucent.org.uk/interim-statement-nhs-england-single-sex-guidance/
Interim Statement: NHS England Single Sex Guidance.
In January 2024, TransLucent published the results of 180 FOI requests showing there was only one complaint about a trans woman using NHS female wards for the year ending August 2023. Rob Clearly, a former NHS director, conducted the investigation, requesting information from 130 acute NHS trusts and 50 mental health trusts. The one complaint Rob found at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust was minor and was not escalated to the second stage of the NHS’s complaints procedure. TransLucent has posted the NHS Trusts’ replies to Rob’s FOIs on its website; nothing could be more transparent.
This was not the first investigation of its kind; Steph Richards, TransLucent’s former CEO, had undertaken similar investigations dating back to December 2021. Steph never discovered a single complaint.
Yesterday’s news was devastating for many in the trans community: a manufactured panic from bad-faith transphobic organisations in the culture war to promote transphobia, assisted by the right-wing media, has yet again further segregated trans people as second-class citizens, potentially violating Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The consequences of yesterday’s policy change will unfold over the coming days, weeks, and months. Sadly, evidence suggests trans people will be even less likely to seek medical help when required.
For many, placing fully transitioned trans women who have undertaken one of the most difficult journeys in humanity and have female anatomy in a man’s NHS ward will be revolting.
The same applies to bearded, deep-voiced trans men who could be placed in female wards.
This has devastated me. After more than 20 years of living as a woman, fully transitioned, and being accepted. I feel like I no longer exist and that I’m excluded from going into hospital. It also seems that we’re the only group of people who it’s ok to abuse these days.
Hi Fiona, I agree with you about the current situation making trans people feel abandoned by the powers that be. I as a woman with a trans history, having lived publicly out as a woman for 40 of my 70 years, see how a minority of people with very loud voices that are amplified by media and some poloticians have been successful in rolling back protections for the minory transgender peopulation. I also see the majority of people I meet in real life, weather at work or socially not being at all concerned by trans women or men living their lives and accessing the spaces we have always accessed to live our lives as women or men. I know and talk to many people in govenment, and the NHS that they support the trans community. They are allys who will do their best to support our access to the spaces we need to live our lives authenticlly. That includes access to NHS services. Please do access the NHS if you need support for your healthcare. As a community we have been here before and won the rights we had before the new EHRC guidance. We will win those equality battles in the future. until then take care and live your best life. Regards HIlary Cooke, CEO Medway Pride CIC