Hospital refuses to operate after woman requests all-female care

I almost can't believe this is happening.SURELY this has to be illegal...?

Hospitals there are often used by wealthy folks from countries who would kick up an unholy stink.

She pointed out that this is a request which is sometimes made for cultural reasons which the hospital would presumably be more amenable to.

Oh yes, the head of the anti bullying charity in sensed that women are allowed single sex spaces.

I've just spent 3 weeks visiting someone in hospital (male). I didn't meet a single male nurse, OT or physio. They were all women. Even most of the doctors were female.

This.

And also because you can't provide them with the private en suite icu room they're demanding because you physically don't have any? Ultimately this is a case of a customer demanding a service the hospital couldn't provide, and the hospital said "Sorry, we can't provide that". The rest is Daily Mail outrage fluffing combined with a patient who was clearly primed to be paranoid and see scary transgenders everywhere.

The hospital didn't say 'we can't provide that' though, did they? That came later.

The patient also didn't 'demand' that provision. She said she assumed they would provide it.

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.

Bad PR move. Hospitals there are often used by wealthy folks from countries who would kick up an unholy stink. But didn’t the Portland also have something like this a while back?

but the NHS is short staffed so I think it’s a case of getting the workers in who can do the job, regardless of sex.

This isn't about the NHS. It was a private hospital.

I remember Liam Hackett kicking off at a hospital because he was made to stand in the corridor while his friend was undergoing breast screening. They explained it was to ensure the privacy and dignity of the other women.

Surely it’s not possible to have a department of all female staff.

I would say a large proportion of nurses and care workers are female anyway and in a perfect world there would be areas of completely separate sexes but the NHS is short staffed so I think it’s a case of getting the workers in who can do the job, regardless of sex.

It’s like toilets in the supermarkets.
They are single sexed but it also has a sign saying there are male and female workers, as it’s just not possible to be choosy about who they hire.

I'm talking about the standard screening clinics where you go for a regular scan. The nurse and radiographer are always female in my experience and those of all my friends (we're of an age where they're a regular occurrence). I wouldn't expect consultants to be all women.

That's why I said breast screening.

Let's not forget this one either -

Woman was raped on a women's ward by a transwoman. Hospital denied it happened as there were no men on the ward.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hospital-dismissed-claim-of-rape-by-trans-attacker-bssxvbqch

This isn't true of every trust. I work in imaging and rotate through breast screening. Our consultants are mostly male. They do the consultations, as well as being available for certain scans and aspirations/procedures etc. We, or course, always have female sonographers and chaperones available as well but not that many female consultants. We've noticed that not many women specialise in Radiology so may be why there isn't as many female consultants in the pool.

Sorry @ScaryFaces can you explain how staff would be "subjected to abuse" by being asked not to be in a room? I've been asked at work to leave rooms, and also not let into rooms at times, for a variety of reasons, and I have never found this to be abusive.

And there was the lady who refused a smear test when she asked for a female nurse and got an MTF trans one, then was smeared as a bigot. Women don't ask for female only care for fun.

Breast! Not beast

Every beast screening clinic is staffed by entirely female staff. Why? Because the NHS recognises that women undergoing an intimate procedure prefer to have another woman.

It is not indulgence to make female patients comfortable

Is there any evidence that the woman in question was abusive towards a member of staff?

Or are her opinions* regarding single sex spaces and services being unlawfully labelled abusive^?

The way ScaryFaces talks about these women is truly callous.

Reminds me of this case

www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/lancaster-mum-with-fear-of-men-locked-on-hospital-ward-with-transgender-patient-653048

I'm not sure TRAs realise how badly they come across to the average person in the street when they dismiss women who have been treated appallingly due to this ideological agenda. Self-awareness has never been their strong suit.

I seem to be the only person here who did. It tells a vastly different story to the Daily Mail article.

But given the intimate nature of your scan, you shouldn't have had to ask, it should have been the default that they asked you if they could observe. That's how informed consent works.
I've been in positions where I wasn't in a fit state to object to being stared at by a room full of male students in postnatal but would have said no if I could. The hospital-ANY hospital-should understand that dignified, patient-centred care includes working with traumatised women to make them feel safe when they are vulnerable.
Your post (and subsequent ones) seem very over-invested in dismissing the lived experiences of (other?) women. Why does someone else's discomfort bother you so much? And if the Daily Mail and Twitter are not sources you are comfortable with, what makes Mumsnet different?

It doesn't mean she isn't genuinely traumatized but it also doesn't mean that the hospital is obliged to indulge every aspect of that, or subject their staff to potential abuse because of that. Plenty of patients who abuse staff do so because of trauma or mental illness, doesn't make it okay.

Exactly, Mischance. This isn't about the staff, it's about patient care. The patient was intruded upon by a male with no reason to be there when she had specifically asked to be treated with dignity and respect. It's not about male people's feelings of invalidation that women clock them as male.