New NHS guidance on same sex accommodation

Sorry that reply was to andyoldlabour re the Lancashire Trust response.

The Equality Act offers no such guidance. Communal accommodation is a clearly stated exemption.

Janice Turner on Twitter:

twitter.com/VictoriaPeckham/status/1179075055659159552

"In direct contravention of the 2010 Equality Act, new NHS guidance decrees that gender identity overrides biological sex. Any male person who self-IDs as a woman - regardless of transition - must be accommodated on a women's ward. Extraordinary".

Looks like a typo in the email address you used, GC.

should be:

[email protected]

I got an automatic reply, stating that it will be replied to within 18 days. That message also had a link to the FOI address to use if required.

I have just typed out a long letter of complaint and emailed it to
[email protected] -which is the contact given at the end of the document. But I had it pinged back as undeliverable, address not correct - anyone else had this problem?

So when you are lying on a stretcher bleeding profusely - they now have to ask you (even if you are stark naked) if your gender is male or female then bundle you off the the single sex ward? What if you are unconscious?!

It’s getting very silly. I was at a conference and the organisers had a uniform - plain white (unisex) shirt, jeans, trainers - little makeup, plain hairstyles.

There was one staffer who I couldn’t quite pin down as ‘male’ or ‘female’ - it was a male bodied person. They hair was long and permed, and half tied back with a clip. They way they stood, walked, half smiled - yes, could have been ‘female’. If they had said either way I wouldn’t have been amazed. They were early 20s so at an age when such things are possible I guess. I managed to wangle an introduction and yes, he was male and a man.

Why am I having to mess with my brain so that I don’t ‘get it wrong’???

That’s interesting Mini. Is it a specialist ward then, since it’s mixed anyway? Do you know if it’s the general practice in most wards

My local hospital every single ward is mixed, but with separate female/male bays. All off the same internal ward “corridor” which is where the nurses station and toilets/showers Are.

Men though do have a tendency to wander, women as well....often through dementia. I’ve worked there and it’s not uncommon to pull a man out the woman’s bay or vice verse.

Errol, that article is very interesting, particularly the part where the Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust says this:

"The Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust said that they welcome the opportunity to discuss this with the complainant in addition to the written response they have already received and they have taken legal advice on The Equality Act regarding the admission of transgender people to NHS wards. ‘The Equality Act offers guidance about the admission of transgender people to NHS wards and this is something we have also taken legal advice on. ‘This directs that transgender people should be able to self-identify and receive treatment on the ward that is appropriate and in line with that self-identification."

Good job.

I've made an FOI request for the Equality Impact Assessment and some other related documents.

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/equality_impact_assessment_for_d

I am making a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to be supplied with the following information regarding the NHS policy and guidance document entitled “Delivering same-sex accommodation”, which was published on 26th September 2019.

1. The Equality Impact Assessment which was undertaken before publishing this document.

1. All other documentation which indicates that the NHS has fulfilled its obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty regarding this policy and guidance. The PSED requires public bodies to assess the impact of policies on all groups protected under the Equality Act 2010.

1. If not contained in the response to 1 or 2 above, all documents showing how the potential conflict between the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment was assessed.

Gotta 💖 Martina...

Martina Navratilova not impressed at the idea.

"This will not end well..."

twitter.com/Martina/status/1179000710060478464

Once again it is obsessive and careful deference given to all the accoutrements of femininity and sex stereotypical props, adopted by male patients as a choice, because of feelings.

Versus actual sick women being left in physical disadvantage (and sadly danger) as evidenced by harassment and attacks in healthcare settings.

Yes, that's about it

So the fact that a male person may see a woman's bare breasts or vulva on the ward is fine, but God forbid anyone sees a trans woman's bald head/shorter than they'd like people to think hair?

Annex B

In addition to the usual safeguards outlined in relation to all other patients, it is
important to take into account that immediately post-operatively, or while
unconscious for any reason, those trans women who usually wear wigs, are unlikely
to wear them in these circumstances, and may be ‘read’ incorrectly as men. Extra
care is therefore required so that their privacy and dignity as women are
appropriately ensured

..but don't worry about the privacy and dignity of the women born female, eh?

There are a lot more people who're involved in religions that require them to use single sex spaces than there are trans identified people in the UK, just for a start.

I worry that this is not the only area where needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged people are not being assessed correctly, if hospitals don't understand the purpose of these assessments. They are not supposed to be a box ticking exercise.

It's not enough to only look at potential discrimination from the perspective of trans people and fuck everyone else.

Unfortunately that's exactly what many organisations seem to think it's for. Because they've been lobbied by groups like GIRES, Stonewall and Mermaids.

I have known really poorly patients been put back into the bay so a trans patient can have the side room.

This is awful. Dying patients (and their relatives) denied the privacy of side rooms for sadpenisfeelz.

In my understanding an Equality Impact Assessment is supposed to assess the impact of a proposed policy on all members of all the protected characteristics, not just the specific one the policy is for in 8 different ways.

So they should have looked at the impact on all women (and men - to see whether there was an impact on people because of their sex but women tend to be disadvantaged), all elderly people, all religious people, so they could avoid where possible directly or indirectly discriminating against a protected characteristic. It's not enough to only look at potential discrimination from the perspective of trans people and fuck everyone else.

Who is managing this shit?

Trans right groups I suspect. You know the worst done by entity in the whole history of the world (besides Donald trump). Bless the weans...

A few years back I was in a "women's hospital" part of a major teaching hospital in London's East End. It was chaos. Almost all the other patients seemed to be of Muslim South Asian origin, and my guess is that husbands, were either unwilling to leave their wives in an environment where they might meet men, or that they had no child care. Either way extended families stayed through the night, with children running up and down corridors. It imposed an additional burden on staff who were in no way able to even try and impose visiting hours. I can't imagine what would happen if you added a transwoman to the mix.

Fucking Hell I’ve only just caught up with this. I used to work for a forerunner to NHSI and I think they’ve got this very wrong.

Once upon a time we would have consulted with the public and representative groups to develop this sort of guidance. Am I going to be surprised at who was consulted on this one I wonder?

Personality wise - interesting isn’t it.