Trans women barred from female hospital wards under new NHS guidance

Trans women barred from female hospital wards under new NHS guidance Trans rights groups say the rules will ‘push trans people away from accessing care’ - Bookmark Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join todayAlready a member? Log in Updated NHS England guidance has confirmed that transgender patients are to be placed on hospital wards matching their birth sex rather than their gender identity. The move allows hospitals to lawfully ban trans women from female wards and exclude trans men from male wards, and has been criticised by trans rights groups who say it will “push trans people away from accessing care”. Prior to the update, healthcare guidelines permitted transgender patients to be accommodated on single-sex wards in accordance with the gender identity with which they identified. Published on Thursday, the new instructions arrive just over two months after broader guidance on single-sex spaces from Britain's rights watchdog formally took effect, and 18 months after a Supreme Court judgment on biological sex that dealt a huge blow to trans rights. At the time of the judgment, trans rights groups warned that it will “exclude trans people wholesale from participating in UK society”. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) code had previously confirmed that to qualify as a single-sex provision under the Equality Act, a service must be offered on the basis of biological sex. It said: “In separate or single-sex services, a trans man will be excluded from the men-only service because his sex is female, and a trans woman will be excluded from the women-only service because her sex is male.” It covered a range of scenarios including single-sex hospital wards, which it said can lawfully exclude trans patients. The new NHS England document, which says all patients “should be treated with respect, dignity, compassion and care”, adds that “trans people and others with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment should be accommodated in line with their biological sex”. It says that hospitals “should identify alternative arrangements” for trans patients in cases “where it would not be clinically appropriate” to care for them on a ward of their biological sex. It adds that “where clinical needs and same-sex accommodation requirements cannot both be met, clinical needs are the priority”. Such occurrences, where a trans patient was placed on a ward of their gender identity, are described in the guidance as likely to be “rare” and reasons should be “clearly recorded and reported nationally as breaches of this guidance”. The new guidance applies to acute, mental health and community NHS trusts as well as NHS-funded patients in private settings but not A&E departments, urgent treatment centres or paediatrics. Updated guidance for NHS England staff in hospitals and GP surgeries has also been published. It says that single-sex facilities such as changing rooms and toilets should be used according to biological sex. In trusts with mainly single-sex facilities, “organisations should consider whether suitable and accessible alternatives, such as single‑occupancy or mixed-sex facilities with individual lockable rooms can be provided to allow access to facilities in a way that respects privacy and dignity and supports inclusion of all staff”. Trusts have been asked to carry out audits of their current provision, including “whether hand-washing facilities are communal or not and whether options are provided to ensure privacy within single-sex facilities”, with the findings expected to “inform local people policies, to identify any changes needed to existing facilities, and support planning for any required capital investment”. In a joint statement, campaign groups TransActual and Trans+ Solidarity Alliance said: “This NHS guidance emphasises clinical judgment as the priority over blanket exclusion, but leaves individual healthcare professionals unclear on how to safely look after trans patients. “Forcing trans people into spaces for our sex assigned at birth will never be the most clinically appropriate decision, and would push trans people away from accessing care. “Doctors and nurses need to be able to prioritise looking after the person in front of them, not juggling scarce side rooms and writing breach reports in order to keep trans patients safe. “This guidance will not survive contact with reality in resource-strapped hospitals and will create unworkable operational challenges. The government failing to get a grip of this legal mess is sadly putting politics over patient care.” Opposition parties criticised the time lag between the Supreme Court ruling and the publication of the guidance. Conservative shadow health secretary Damian Hinds said: “The Supreme Court ruling was nearly two years ago. The delay in implementing the law raises serious questions on compliance and ministers must act decisively to provide clarity for patients and staff. “Labour’s failure to act swiftly has left NHS staff and patients facing uncertainty over single-sex spaces. Female NHS staff and patients deserve protection and the law must be enforced.”