A woman who asked for her NHS breast-screening to be carried out by a female-born clinician was pilloried as a transphobe by a hospital trust

[stumbledin]

Clare Dimyon, 54, who was raped as a teenager and is a lesbian, wrote formal letters asking to be seen by a “natal female” when she went for a mammogram on Christmas Eve last year.

She made clear that after being violated by a man when she was “little more than a child” she did not consent to intimate procedures being carried out by people born as boys.

Staff at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust were “visibly shocked” but sympathetic.

The mammographer signed one letter confirming she was female and another letter was placed in Dimyon’s medical records. But two weeks ago she saw her letters highlighted by the trust as examples of “unacceptable” and “highly discriminatory” communications in guidelines to support trans patients and staff.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/patient-branded-transphobic-after-asking-for-female-medic-3jh3snddt?shareToken=412f21b1846cf5dca5d036d78a8bed8a&wgu=270525_54264_15757964141189_2266477043&wgexpiry=1583572414&utm_source=planit&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_content=22278&fbclid=IwAR0mhEFWZkzwY4ohxW6Na9Q0fguFO5k6jDXsSUAhZ6YWp2DQIXC__5eDNvI

How is it possible that the medical profession have also signed up to the lal la land of gender.

Surely of any group of people they should know and respect the reality of biological sex.

And be trained to understand respecting patient's privacy and need for post traume support.

I wish it were possible to say oh well this is Brighton, but it seems the whole NHS has been captured and is now compliant with the trans agenda - at the expense of women.

Isn’t this a breech of confidentiality to reveal this to the press?

Isn’t this a breech of confidentiality to reveal this to the press?

They had taken her name of it but it was obviously recognisable.

Did the patient come forward and say that’s me to the press then?

Nhs revealing that much detail still feels like a breach of confidentiality.

Sincerely hope she's planning legal action.

From the Times news story it sounds like the woman concerned has spoken to the press. Quote:

Dimyon, who was made an MBE for her LGBT work, said she was shocked because it was “long-standing practice to ask for a lady doctor or lady nurse”.

She said: “We have an examination which involves clinicians handling your breasts and placing them on a mammography table in order for those pictures to be taken. Even on the door they say ‘gentlemen stay outside’, meaning husbands and partners, I suppose, because they recognise this is an intimate examination.” She argued that screening rates for breast cancer would drop if women knew male-born clinicians could handle them.

“The NHS is spending a lot on trans training, so when is the awareness training going to start for survivors of rape and sexual violence?” she asked.

It will be interesting to see how Stonewall etc., report this given she has been recognised for her work for the LGBT work.

Ok my mistake. I’m stressing too much about all this and not being careful enough.

God, when will they admit that the Trans Emperor has no clothes?

I think it absolutely is a breach of confidentiality even though they removed her name. As an nhs worker I had it drummed into me that I can’t discuss stuff about patients which might make it identifiable to others even if I don’t say their name.

Well it is bery disturbing. And we all have to put so much trust in how people in the NHS behave.

But good on her for taking a stand. I am sure many women would just want to walk away from it. And maybe delay treatment in the future that could be crucial because they have lost trust in the health system treating them / us with respect.

“The NHS is spending a lot on trans training, so when is the awareness training going to start for survivors of rape and sexual violence?” she asked.

Well seeing as most of those will be women and girls, they're not stunning and brave enough to warrant any fucks given.

I'm not sure she stepped forwards as such, my understanding is that she recognised her letter and was shocked to be used as an example of transphobia. So she has spoken out.

I'm so pleased this has made the press.

Recent thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3751152-Only-consenting-to-receiving-medical-treatment-from-a-female-is-not-acceptable

This is disturbing on so many levels!

This weekend the trust defended its stance. “It is not possible to guarantee to any patient that they will only be treated by a clinician assigned to a specific gender at birth and, as an organisation that prides itself on our commitment to diversity and inclusion, nor would we wish to do so,” it said.

In a statement, the trust stressed the importance of patients seeing the clinician with the most relevant skills, adding: “We have a duty to apply the same principles here as we would if a patient requested clinicians from particular backgrounds/ethnicities or any of the nine characteristics protected by law.”

This statement is fucking outrageous!

Here is what the NHS website says:

Breast screening involves having an X-ray (mammogram) at a special clinic or mobile breast screening unit. This is done by a female health practitioner called a mammographer.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/breast-cancer-screening/what-happens/

This is repeated in the breast screening service's info leaflet:

Mammograms are carried out by women called mammographers.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/breast-screening-helping-women-decide

I've put this on another thread relating to this issue, but I think it bears repeating.

This case - a woman who is a rape survivor - seems directly analogous to one of the examples of 'exceptions' relating to employment given in the EA.

See section 789
A counsellor working with victims of rape might have to be a woman and not a transsexual person, even if she has a Gender Recognition Certificate, in order to avoid causing them further distress.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/notes

Oh thats just dreadful

So my husband would be encouraged not to come in...but some random would be allowed to do what they please

Fucking ridiculous

I wonder which races/ ethnicities the NHS believe are responsible for the vast majority of violence and sexual assault towards which other races/ethnicities? If it's supposedly a directly equivalent situation?

It's a ridiculous argument, it's not even worth engaging with.

This is about creating a hierarchy of protected characteristics, which boils straight down to the top of the hierarchy being males and the bottom being females.

Your feelings/needs/inclusion based on your race, age, sex, colour, faith, disability etc will definitely be respected by the NHS....

unless they happen to upset a male. In which case your requirements as a patient must in all cases be subordinate to the male health care provider's, and you may be shamed, warned, excluded from health care and your information used in training to humiliate you if as a female you do not obey this.

This is what it boils down to. Take off all the window dressing and this is what is boils down to. It's appalling.

Years ago a black HCP used their hospital trust over an incident where a patient had refused to be treated by them and demanded a white hcp.

I wonder if some trusts are nervous about a similar law suit from a trans hcp?

That would be sued not used!

I hope this is limited to Brighton. I worked for 36 years in the NHS in Scotland, and when we had these sort of requests we swapped staff around to get an all female team in theatre wherever possible. I’ve done this myself for fundamentalist Muslims and rape victims. I think it’s beyond despicable that the Trust in Brighton are so inconsiderate, arrogant and woke that they would treat this poor patient so badly.

That’s what happens when you let the state provide all the healthcare. Schools will be next.

I read this earlier, absolutely outrageous

It needs to go to court.

It needs to be clearly stated, that if a female patient does not want to be intimately touched by someone they perceive as male, their right to say no is trumped by the male person's requirement that their personal choice of subjective identity be respected over and above reality and fact.

And that their feelings and protected characteristic be respected while they have no reciprocal responsibility for the feelings or any protected characteristic of the female involved.

That it is acceptable to withhold health care to punish a citizen who fails to conform with a political belief they do not hold, where the limit of their 'behaviour' is refusing consent to be intimately touched by someone of the opposite sex.

That it is professionally acceptable to compel a patient to prioritise the emotional needs of their health care professional over their own emotional needs and best interests, against the hcp's duty of care. And this is in keeping with general standards required of professionals in providing care.

I sincerely hope Spero has time to tweet from court that day, it should be fascinating to watch.