Transgender row over threat to kick female patients out of wards
WOMEN patients who complain about having a biological male in the next bed risk being kicked off the ward under new NHS transgender guidelines.
Medical staff will be expected to deal with those who object to trans patients on single-sex wards as if the complainant is a racist or homophobe, the guidance states.
Rather than relocate the trans patient, such as to a single room, it will be the person who makes the complaint who will be moved, according to the policy.
And trans-women who were born male will be afforded the right to stay on women-only wards regardless of whether or not they have had sex reassignment surgery.
Last ni ght, women’s groups accused NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), which published the guidance in its ‘Gender Reassignment Policy’, of failing to uphold s i ngle- s ex wards and unfairly castigating those who had legitimate concerns.
Susan Sinclair, a campaigner for women’s sex-based rights, said: ‘It’s important for hospitals to maintain single- sex wards, and for t he privacy and dignity of all to be upheld. This policy fails to do that.’
She said that she was deeply concerned by ‘the way the NHSGGC policy has framed patients who express distress about sharing a ward with a person of the opposite sex as being transphobic and then compares them to racists and homophobes.
‘This approach is abhorrent and completely fails to acknowledge the fact that wards are separated by sex — not race, not sexuality and not gender identity.’
The guidelines describe a scenario where an ‘agitated’ woman says ‘she didn’t expect to be sharing the ward with a man and points to the bed opposite’.
The document advises: ‘The nurse should work to allay the patient’s concerns.’ But, it continues: ‘Her duty of care extends to protect patients from harassment and should the woman continue to make demands about the removal of the transgender patient and be vocal in the ward it would be appropriate to remind her of this.
‘Ultimately it maybe the complainant who is required to be removed.
‘General appreciation of transgender issues is relatively low within our communities and often this is used as a rationale for behaviour that is essentially transphobic.
‘If a white woman complained to a nurse about sharing a ward with a black patient or a heterosexual male complained about being in a ward with a gay man, we would expect our staff to act in a manner that deals with the expressed behaviour immediately.’
Dr Nicola Williams, director of Fair Play For Women, responded: ‘It’s not prejudice to perceive someone as the sex they actually are.’
Last night a spokesman for the health board said: ‘When a patient with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment uses our services, we will challenge anyone who has a “them and us” position in our facilities.
‘We ask that all patients, staff and visitors adopt an understanding that we are all part of the same diverse gender spectrum.’