3 days ago
NHS under fire for delaying a ban on trans-women using female-only wards, changing rooms and toilets until the autumn
The NHS has come under fire for delaying a ban on trans-women using female-only wards, changing rooms and toilets until the autumn.
Health secretary Wes Streeting promised new guidance in April, after the Supreme Court ruled biological men should be barred from women's single-sex spaces.
But NHS England has no plans to bring out the guidance until 'late summer or early autumn', meaning it may not be published until October or November.
Women's rights charities said hospitals and GP surgeries are putting females in an 'undignified and humiliating' position by failing to comply with the law.
The group Sex Matters told the Telegraph it has been contacted by staff at several English trusts who had raised objections to biological men in female facilities but were rebuffed.
NHS England's delay comes even though a health trust in Scotland faces making a huge payout to a nurse who was forced to share a changing room with a trans doctor.
Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy at Sex Matters, said: 'NHS England's failure to forbid unlawful policies permitting trans-identifying hospital staff to use changing rooms for the opposite sex is staggeringly complacent.
'Sex Matters has heard from staff in several English trusts who have objected to such self-ID policies without success.
'All around the country, it seems as if lazy, self-satisfied bureaucrats are leaving female staff to face undignified and humiliating conditions rather than admit that the 'inclusive' policies they put in place were always unlawful and harmful to women.'
The Supreme Court ruled that a trans woman was not legally a woman because the word 'sex' in the Equality Act refers to biological sex, not self-identified gender.
It means services segregated by sex, such as toilets and changing rooms, should be segregated by biological sex.
Many public bodies have already started observing the rules.
But NHS England has still not acted, despite prime minister Sir Keir Starmer telling organisations to comply with the law 'as soon as possible'.
The national NHS guidance on same-sex accommodation, published in September 2019, says: 'Good practice requires that clinical responses be patient-centred, respectful and flexible towards all transgender people whether they live continuously or temporarily in a gender role that does not conform to their natal sex.'
It adds: 'Trans people should be accommodated according to their presentation: the way they dress, and the name and pronouns they currently use.
'This may not always accord with the physical sex appearance of the chest or genitalia.
'It does not depend on their having a gender recognition certificate or legal name change.'
The NHS Confederation, which represents trusts and other health organisations, withdrew its guidance two months ago.
The original guidance said trans people should be allowed to use their chosen toilets and changing rooms.
Ms Joyce said NHS trusts faced huge pay-outs if they did not update their guidance to comply with the law.
In Fife, the NHS is defending itself in an employment tribunal against nurse Sandie Peggie, who was suspended after objecting to a trans woman in the changing room.
Ms Joyce said: 'In Scotland, NHS Fife has already wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds defending an employment tribunal brought by nurse Sandie Peggie.
'The eventual cost, which will be borne by taxpayers, could approach £1m.
'How many more Sandie Peggies have to put their reputations and livelihoods on the line before this ends?'
Baroness Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said in April: 'We've been speaking to the health service for an inordinately long time - we will now be asking them when they will be updating their advice.'
NHS England said: 'The NHS is working through the implications of the ruling, and we absolutely recognise the need for revised guidance.
'It's important for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to publish its statutory guidance before final decisions about future policy are taken.
'In the meantime, we are working closely with Government to ensure we can provide updated guidance as soon as possible.'
