Trans women allowed to share female NHS wards

... even if they haven’t had a sex-change operation

TRANSGENDER women who have yet to physically transition are being allowed to share NHS hospital wards with female patients.

Ministers have been promising for years to end the indignity of mixed-sex wards.

But the drive for women’s privacy is being undermined by a sweeping push for transgender rights.

Hospitals simply require people to ‘identify’ as a woman to stay on a female ward – even if they have not undergone the necessary medical procedures to physically become a woman.

None of the 100 trusts that responded to a Freedom of Information request requires patients to have begun transitioning to be treated as their preferred sex.

A nurse at one city hospital reported that a patient identifying as a transgender woman appeared to become sexually aroused on a female ward, distressing elderly patients.

She said the well-built, tall patient who had breast implants but intact male genitals, requested to be placed on a women’s ward.

‘There were complaints from patients who were distressed and felt unsafe,’ she told The Daily Telegraph.

‘But they were told that the patient was a woman and had a right to be there.’

Of 100 NHS trusts that responded to the FoI request, fewer than ten reported complaints or incidents concerning transgender patients.

But many trusts highlighted the fact that they only record patients as male or female, meaning issues involving transgender patients would be listed under their preferred sex.

This also means the NHS does not know how many transgender women are on wards with female patients.

Official guidance from the Department of Health says: ‘Men and women should not have to share sleeping accommodation or toilet/bathroom facilities.’

Exceptions are made, however, ‘where it is in the overall best interests of the patient or reflects the patient’s choice’.

The Daily Mail has been campaigning for more than a decade for an end to mixed-sex wards, resulting in ministers promising in 2010 to end the practice.

Tory MP David Davies said: ‘It’s quite right that a Conservative government made a commitment to end mixed-sex wards. But people with male bodies should be on male wards.’

A spokesman for watchdog NHS Improvement said: ‘As the guidance on mixed-sex accommodation makes clear, decisions should be made in the best interests of all patients and based on the circumstances presented to NHS staff.’