Patients wanting single-sex wards ‘should not be treated like racists’

PATIENTS who ask for single-sex wards should not be treated like racists, the Health Secretary has said.

Victoria Atkins made the remarks as she proposed changes to the NHS constitution to ensure that women have the right to accommodation that is only shared by those of their biological sex.

Previous NHS guidance from 2021 said trans patients could be placed on single-sex wards on the basis of the gender with which they identified.

Women’s rights campaigners said the situation left female patients who asked for intimate care from a woman pressured into accepting care from staff who were born male.

Ms Atkins told The Times: “We have heard farcical stories that claimed patients who demanded to be on single-sex wards were equated to racists. This cannot be right.”

The constitution, updated every 10 years, aims to set out the principles and values of the health service and set out legal rights for patients and staff.

Under the proposals, the constitution will state that “we are defining sex as biological sex”, in a landmark move. It follows accusations that the health service had been captured by “gender ideology”. The plans enshrine the right to ask for intimate care from a health worker of the same biological sex.

Maya Forstater, the chief executive of Sex Matters, the gender-critical group, said healthcare providers had become “confused and frightened by the idea that a gender recognition certificate, or even just a personal identity claim, overrides other people’s rights when it comes to same-sex care from healthcare professionals”.

The draft constitution, now subject to an eight-week consultation, also places a duty on health providers to use “clear terms” to communicate and take account of biological differences. It follows pledges from ministers to stop NHS trusts using terms like “chestfeeding” and to “people who give birth”.

Ms Atkins told Sky News that we “shouldn’t have to eradicate women from our language in order to be inclusive and welcoming”.

The eight-week consultation will be the first stage of a review of the NHS constitution.