Hospital refuses to operate after woman requests all-female care

Exactly this, which is a very obvious case of discrimination on the basis of her protected beliefs.

😃

My reading of it is:

Woman wants single sex care. She writes to the hospital along the lines ‘may I request single sex care and by the way I don’t think transwomen are women so single sex means single sex please’

Hospital writes back ‘we do not share your values so we are cancelling the surgery’.

This isn’t really about what is possible (and I come down on the fact that it may well be impossible to guarantee single sex care - what if someone is sick and an opposite sex person has to cover?) - if the hospital had tried to engage better then it might have come down to that.

It is that they didn’t even try - they thought her values were wrong, and that was that.

Sorry, crosspost!

I'd like to add that, as someone who has watched and suffered as my longterm partner died of colorectal disease, that this patient's desire for same sex care provision is no trivial matter. Patients know both the urgency of surgery and also how demeaning and humiliating some of the things your body can do to you can be (I remember helping her to clean up when she had vomited up faeces after a bowel blockage, for example). I cannot imagine prioritising a man's feelings over any small amount of dignity I could grant to a patient in these awful circumstances, they are already suffering, both physically and psychologically, infinitely more than anyone should ever endure.

Bit embarrassing

"We do not share your beliefs so we cannot adhere to your request, and have therefore decided to not proceed with your surgery."

These 'beliefs' are protected by law. You cannot discriminate on the basis of them.

She did.

But that aside, the NHS is not free. It is a service we all pay for. It is a service that has allowed male HCPs to abuse women in the past and needs to respect that some women won't want males to touch them.

Sorry but if you want that, go private.

Oh, mate.

Get real and read the whole thread - this a matter of life and death for this woman and she did indeed go private.

She did!

Get real, there are 110k vacancies in the NHS, some filled with bank staff & 7m people waiting for an operation - what if everyone (male and female) said "i want same sex post op care"

When i had a nasty fall, i didn't say "that male paramedic can f off i want a female one, so i'll wait" or after the operation "no, i 'll risk infection and wait for 3 days for the dressing to be changed by a female"

Sorry but if you want that, go private.

I'm absolutely gobsmacked at this.

I suppose the only good thing it's being reported in the news.
Once upon a time this wouldn't have happened.

Bloody men dicktating . And yes that is intentional. I despair

They're in a very strong position now so why don't they repudiate GI, cut their links with Stonewall, and apologise for the direction they've taken on this?

They can afford to lose some votes, and they'll probably gain more from the traditional left-wing women and working-class voters they've insulted and alienated over this issue.

But I suppose it's asking too much for Starmer to be courageous, isn't it?

Fools.

Or keep voting Tory and soon private will be the only option.

Usually there is only one registrar on call overnight who might be a man and there might not be a woman willing to swap into their shifts. Nursing-wise it should be easy to provide.

She said she was fine with male doctors.

She may even have been specifically trying to avoid being immobilised at the mercy of the wig wearing inappropriate nurse. It sounds like the eye contact was very unsettling to her - I’ve had that experience myself with men who turned out to be bad news.

Wow. Wild.

SantaCarla isn’t ‘speaking for all women,’ she’s giving her own opinion, you know, doing the very thing that chat boards and Internet forums were designed to facilitate?

You can tell it’s her opinion because she immediately proceeds it with the words, ‘I sometimes think’.

When I go for breast scans, it has always been a female who has conducted the scan.

As stated upthread it isn't always viable to only have females available, especially given the massive staff shortages currently. I work the the limitations of the system and quite frankly I didn't have any issue saying what I felt comfortable with and they were responsive and obliging, no way was I going to give them a hard time about having a group of medical students watching the procedure. We have to work in a less than 100% perfect world and speak up like I did or state at the time of booking the appointment that due to the nature of the procedure will it be possible to be treated by a female medic.

Plus, you’d really have to go out of your way to NOT be able to find a female nurse.

if this was a chap who had requested a male nurse, perhaps we’d have to really consider the ‘oh, we could only get opposite sex nurses to cover those particular shifts’ but this is nursing, and 89% of the profession is female.

I accept that it’s a much bigger ask when it comes to female consultants but male consultants will expect to have a female nurse or female chaperone present, because it’s well known that many women will not seek the healthcare they need if it means being alone with a unknown male.

The only male HCPs who I have ever known to be offended by women who request same sex care, or insisting on a chaperone if same sex care isn’t available, are the ones with a special internal gender identity.

it’s very worrying that a HCPs feelings have been allowed to take priority over a patient’s physical health.

Hopefully this will soon be tested in court and we’ll have a definitive answer as to how this particular clash of rights should be handled.

No we are not, don’t speak for all women

She didn't claim to be! She very clearly said "I sometimes think..." and then "women can...", not "women are".

Comprehension is not your strong suit, is it?

I haven't read the article, but insisting on all-female care in an ITU environment (if that is what might be needed post-op) is difficult to provide. Usually there is only one registrar on call overnight who might be a man and there might not be a woman willing to swap into their shifts. Nursing-wise it should be easy to provide.

She's clearly referring to a subset of women

No we are not, don’t speak for all women

But even if we took this later claim on good faith, was it not a massive overreaction on the hospital's part to unilaterally decide to cancel the operation without any discussion or opportunity to agree a compromise? I would expect if that was the genuine reason for the cancellation, the reasonable response would have been to urgently contact the patient to explain what could and could not be accommodated and to see if they were happy to proceed on that basis.

YY. This is a private hospital. The reason for the abrupt cancellation, not even communicated to her by a senior member of staff, is clearly ideological.