We must protect what is at heart of Scottish NHS

The National

5 days ago

It's really not just a debate about changing rooms, a notion in itself that has been suitably blown out of proportion in harmony with online anti-trans hysteria. It's frankly about the morals and values we allow to occupy the corridors of our fundamental institutions. I come from a big NHS family of nurses and I myself have worked in the NHS, I know the responsibility involved in the job. To care for people, from all different backgrounds and walks of life, at their most vulnerable times. The underpinning argument in this case, and the horrific slurs we have this week seen as forming part of the story, are a betrayal of that responsibility. I can't believe we're at a point in this discourse where it's even considered mildly controversial to say that. It's not.
The anti-trans brigade have so much to answer for. To start with, a point the rational have made repeatedly but that will no doubt continue to fall on deliberately covered ears, trans women have had access to women's spaces since the Equality Act of 2010. It is not new, and it was not inviting of this much hysteria back then, nor was it for a good 10 years after it came to be. We're only seeing cases like this emerge now because views like these have been emboldened by anti-trans narratives that are direct cut-and-copy material from the days of section 28 – a time that we now reflect on with suitable shame, as we will this 'debate' in years to come.
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In fact, for more than 15 years, trans inclusion in single-sex spaces has been standard practice. Inclusive of hospital wards, changing rooms, toilets – the very spaces now thrust into the political hot seat. Inclusion reframed as a threat, in the most part to bolster right-wing politicians desperate for an opportunity to roll back the hard-won rights of minorities and, ironically, women. Politicians who have gleefully aided the manufacturing of what can only be described as a moral panic that seeks to scapegoat a vulnerable minority, so that they can hide from responsibility themselves.
In the past decade, times have been tumultuous for the entire world. We've seen war in Europe, genocide in Palestine, a global pandemic and closer to home a crippling cost of living crisis and a disastrous Brexit process that has left everyone miserable and angry. A perfect storm for opportunists to save the day with a scapegoat, if a little unimaginative. Don't just take my word for it, it's plain for anyone to see from history. A tale as old as time. Instability breeds hatred because it feeds on the anger of everyday people who have every reason to be angry. It offers people who are struggling and afraid a place to channel that frustration, especially when there seems to be very little light at the end of the tunnel, which is exactly how Britain has felt for quite some time now.
Whether it's immigrants being blamed for job shortages, refugees accused of burdening the public purse, or now trans people 'infiltrating' women's spaces to cause us harm, there's always someone for a certain political class to punch down on. It is a deliberate deflection from reality every single time. A cynical effort to divide at a time when society is vulnerable to that division. It's a grim pattern, but it is a familiar one and it is all of our shame that this particular instance has been allowed to fester to the extent that it has.
It's contextually important to understand that cases like this one in NHS Fife are not disputes unfolding in isolation. Instead, they are part of a much larger and co-ordinated attempt to undermine long-standing protections for trans people. Which is the result of a rise in hatred – at a time of deep instability when minority rights serve as a wedge issue for the politically opportune. Are we getting it yet? These cynical dynamics don't stop at the doors of our hospitals or other public institutions – they seep into them. And in this case, its main achievement has been the erosion of trust in a service that is crucial to the Scotland we pride ourselves on being.
NHS Scotland's core values are care and compassion, dignity and respect, openness, honesty and responsibility, and quality and teamwork. Everyone working for the NHS in any capacity knows that, they are the central point of everything [[NHS Scotland]] seeks to achieve and they make sure that you know it. They are not and cannot be kooky aspirational slogans, they are central to its duty as a public service. A service that is entrusted with often the darkest hours of a person's life. It is not controversial to say that those delivering care within that system must be held to the highest standard of those values both personally and professionally.
Precisely nothing about this case is encompassing of what those values set out. If these narratives go unchallenged or worse even – celebrated – then the very foundations of our NHS and the concept of public healthcare in Scotland will erode. A concept, might I add, that Scotland has a world-renowned reputation for, something we have managed to preserve against the global tide for a long time. A reputation to be incredibly proud of and that we should seek to protect.
(Image: Getty)
What happens in this case matters far beyond the consequences for NHS Fife. It sets a precedent for how malleable our public institutions are to politically manufactured hatred. For whose dignity and respect can and will be deemed negotiable in these spaces. I'd argue that the NHS is not just our healthcare provider, it's the central hub of our public service and it should operate as a reflection of our collective values as a country. If those values mean anything at all, then now is the time to defend those they were designed to protect.
Equality and compassion are not optional extras or appeasing soundbites, they are the bedrock of decent care and by extension, a decent society.