Hospital refuses to operate after woman requests all-female care

But as the hospital has been woefully unprofessional to the point of endangering this poor woman's health, if not her life

Yes, and that letter came from a CEO who is not trans - poor care is not a trans-related issue. That is my point.

@OldCrone You know, that was my first thought - and I don't agree that anyone should be barging in anywhere during examinations but it happens all through hospitals and clinics across the country. I'm not making excuses for this, this is wrong, but this is not happening because someone is trans.

SM-A will have a phenomenal amount of knowledge regarding nerve systems etc. around colon and rectum - one of the complications with hip replacements is that they can impact those areas (and often do). Regardless it doesn't sound like it was her at all.

Many males who want to be called 'she' behave in a very male gendered way. Very entitled and make it clear that they consider women to be inferior. I don’t think it’s accurate to refer to them as gender nonconforming.

Sarah Muirhead-Allwood has grey hair now and is a phenomenal surgeon who would not be in a room for a colorectal pre-op unless there was a need for her to be in then.

Someone being trans does not mean they lower their professional standards - particularly when someone has had a career like Sarah has.

One would hope not. But as the hospital has been woefully unprofessional to the point of endangering this poor woman's health, if not her life, I don't share your faith in the staff's understanding of acceptable standards.

Haven’t RTFT, but it’s worth noting that:

I began to suspect that I had been targeted because my patient records showed that I refused to use pronouns and wanted single sex facilities, although I have no evidence of this

if this was about misgendering or some such, the perception of being targeted would be enough to be able to declare a non hate crime incident. But for this poor woman, she has to consider whether there’s evidence of targeting, because being a woman with trauma wanting single sex doesn’t get the same legal protection than calling a gender non-conforming male “he”.

I hope other members of staff speak out. Sounds like someone is acting badly.

Ah I missed that the person was young.

Well hopefully she'll be able to identify them and clear what they were doing there. She certainly felt it was inappropriate.

I wonder if that's the person who 'appeared to be a transgender man in a blonde wig and make-up

she described him as a young man, so definitely not!

But that person is an orthopaedic surgeon, so would not have any reason to be involved in this woman's treatment. And barging in when someone is having a intimate examination is inappropriate, no matter who they are

I wonder if that's the person who 'appeared to be a transgender man in a blonde wig and make-up opened the door and made eye contact with her.'

That was my first thought too, but Teresa said it was "a young male"; Muirhead-Alwood is 75.

Sarah Muirhead-Allwood has grey hair now and is a phenomenal surgeon who would not be in a room for a colorectal pre-op unless there was a need for her to be in then.

Someone being trans does not mean they lower their professional standards - particularly when someone has had a career like Sarah has.

re. Judaism and condoms - they aren’t inline with religious beliefs in some/most branches of Judaism. Other contraceptive forms are though. The health of the mother and the risk to the mother are always the first considerations during pregnancy so condoms can be used if a pregnant woman would be at risk (this includes mental health too). Abortions are allowed as well

They out the feelings of staff (actual staff or hypothetical staff) above the life of a woman.

bloody hell.

so if a deeply religious man was in there and asked that his intimate care was only carried out men (and he wouldn’t accept a trans man as a carer), he’d be out in his ear?

I wonder if that's the person who 'appeared to be a transgender man in a blonde wig and make-up opened the door and made eye contact with her.'

They're blond in their photos.

his member of staff with a "gender identity" had made their presence felt to me in such an inappropriate way during my first visit.

'I began to suspect that I had been targeted because my patient records showed that I refused to use pronouns and wanted single sex facilities, although I have no evidence of this.

Horrifying. If they were unable to meet her request, then they could have had that discussion and proposed compromise situations. It seems they had no interest in her care at all - physical or emotional.

I do have some questions about all this.
I wonder if the Chief exec discussed the decision with the various specialists that had all come together to make complex arrangements for this operation to go ahead? I really think they would not have wanted to cancel so I wonder what their reaction is.

I also wonder if her operation has been funded by the NHS, which contracts out some operations to private hospitals. Clearly it would be massively expensive for her to self fund although it may have been covered by private health insurance.
If it was being funded by the NHS I wonder what the Trust's response might be.

Complex arrangements like these can be planned within the NHS but as anyone who has watched some of the excellent "Hospital" series on BBC2 will know, after all that planning all it takes is for an RTA or something to fill the ICU the night before the op and it all gets cancelled at the last minute. By booking it within the private system there is a reasonable expectation that the op will go ahead on the day planned. It will be very difficult to rearrange within the NHS, as we all know the hospitals are full and bed space short.
Just yesterday we had a patient booked for a straightforward procedure involving an overnight stay, we do about three a week but there is always a nail biting period of will there / won't there be a bed and from time to time have to cancel. Yesterday was such a day but there had been particular special arrangements made including an interpreter for the pre-op consent etc and again for today for post op training in care and management by specialist nurses. Cancellation would have put the next stage of cancer treatment back. We pleaded and stressed the importance and thankfully the bed managers were able to magic up a bed. But NHS hospitals are doing this all the time. It's really difficult for such a complex procedure and planned ITU etc.
I really hope she gets the treatment she needs.

I understand now
Sarah Muirhead-Allwood, was born William Muirhead-Allwood,[1][2] from Wiki

I do think that the hospital has mishandled this situation. 'Teresa' had already requested that her pre and post operative care would be provided by women. She recognised that the hospital could not guarantee that everybody involved in the actual surgery would be a woman so her request was not unreasonable, especially in view of her experience of sexual assault.

The situation seems to have arisen after Teresa complained that there had been a 'breach of patient dignity' after someone in a 'blonde wig and full evening make up' came into a clinical area where she was undergoing an intimate procedure without knocking. Nobody, whatever their gender identity, should come into an area in which patients might be undressed without knocking, unless it's an emergency (which this wasn't).

It might be hurtful to the member of staff concerned to be described this way but does this justify the hospital cancelling the operation at such short notice, knowing that it was not a simple operation that could easily be done elsewhere and where there was no apparent justification why that member of staff came into the room without knocking? I would say that it doesn't because her clinical needs outweigh the hospital's disagreement with her 'beliefs'.

I wonder if Teresa is going to complain to the Care Quality Commission. They do regulate private hospitals so I assume they would investigate if she is not happy with the HCA response.

I don't understand this.

Why would having a transsexual surgeon amongst their staff make them refuse to operate on a woman who wanted female nurses to care for her?

I read all the emails sent by the female patient to the hospital, and their responses.

She said that she is willing for male consultants to provide her with care, but she wants nurses, support staff etc to be biological females. She's not refusing all care whatsoever from men - but I guess the potentially intimate and regular nature of the care she might need in ICU from nursing and support staff is the reason why she's requested female-only staff. And given her history of sexual assault, it's an even higher priority for her.

If the hospital felt they couldn't acquiesce, surely the most appropriate response would be to contact her and explain what they COULD provide and how her dignity would be respected? Just cancelling what sounds like quite a gruelling operation two days in advance and on a Friday evening with no opportunity for her to challenge/discuss feels unnecessarily cruel and excessive. But hey, it's just another hysterical woman being annoying by demanding her privacy and sex-based rights be respected so who cares, right?!

I hope she kicks their arse legally.

I'm not surprised, Sarah Muirhead-Allwood is one of PGHs leading surgeons. The hospital would take this stance.,

I hope she sues them

I hope she lives to sue them.

I don’t see any fury

I am seething on this woman's behalf. Up until a half second ago, everyone understood that a woman might not like to be treated by a male doctor or change her clothes next to a male stranger.

Just this year, I took a female relative to an ER after a bus accident. She is a rape survivor and as they feared her uterus was perforated, they needed to do a scan and a pelvic as she was bleeding when it wasn't her period. We requested a female physician if possible, but none were on staff. But they were ever so understanding, allowing me and two female nurses in the room w/ her and he talked her through everything, apologizing there was no female doc on that night. Everyone understood.

People are lying if they say they don't understand why a woman would request a female doctor. This has always been known. I'm so sick of the gaslighting. So sick of it.

@OdeToOceans 'we are Jewish, our GP is Jewish and thus understands that telling me to use condoms for contraception is very pointless.'

why is this the case? (please forgive my ignorance!)

The chilling effect of this hospital’s reaction is immense.