If you thought Brighton couldn't get any worse...

This is one of the things I just don't get. Do organisations think that sex is on its way out as a protected characterisitic or something? Or is there more fear of repercussions from the TRAs?

As well as the medical implications, how do they demonstrate they are complying with the Public Sector Equality Duty is they are not collecting data on one of the protected characteristics.

I wish they'd default to Mr/Mrs/Ms and then ask 'Would you like me to call you [first name]'? which gives the opportunity to say 'Oh no, everyone calls me [nickname].'
An older neighbour of mine went into a nursing home, and the staff reported to her family that she seemed to be very confused, she didn't even respond to her own name. Yes, you've guessed it, she was officially called after an Auntie Penelope out of respect, but was always known by her second name, and 'Penelope!' just didn't ring any bells with her when called out in the dayroom....
Oh and by the way, yes I totally agree with the main issue, that sex should be recorded on medical forms. Sorry I digressed about names

I think nicknames are pretty rare but diminutives are common e.g. Peg/Peggy/Meg(s)/Maggie/Daisy for Margaret and Jack/Johnny for John, for example. My late FiL (I never met him) was always called 'Jack' though his name was Albert, 'Jack' would qualify as a nickname there, but not if his second name had been John or James (rarely shortened to 'Jack' but reasonable since it is Jacques in French).

Whats on the back of the form?

What's on the back of

tbh i am all in favour of having to always record biological sex accurately (also for the police in their reports)
and then gender identity if people want to. So then we can better handle their medical needs and keep good, accurate records.

i'm ok with Preferred Name. My mum gets a bit tense when over friendly staff suddenly address her with her first name. She's always used a shortened form of it anyway, but she prefers Mrs Brefs-Mum.

Christ on a bike. This is absolutely awful. Why aren't these people being told, in great detail, what the possible consequences are of taking very high doses of a male hormone, which healthy female bodies would never have? Females have testosterone in our bodies at quite low levels on the whole and women with PCOS can confirm that when the levels are elevated it causes all sorts of health issues.

It’s not only UK citizens who use the NHS. Visitors and tourists who need emergency treatment will not have an NHS record. Does anyone know if the devolved administrations’ health systems link up to a national system? If not, that’s an issue too.

Fucking idiots.

So if someone identifies as a cat, do they get referred to a vet? How does this work when sex is irrelevant?

And how would a vet treat a cat that isn't a sex?

Hmmmm 🧐

So you can refer to the county your parents came from which is only geographical but not what literally your xx/xy make (which defines you as a person)

nuts

I would have thought these kind of forms would be standardised country-wide through the NHS. Is that not the case? Does each hospital write its own proforma? Seems weird.

Awaits posters who will come along and tell you all off along the lines of -

Oh FGS you lot are obsessed it's just a medical form why do you have to make it all about the trans

Or similar

I saw that and also it looks like they have written 'vomitting'

I’m in the Brighton area and recently filled in a self referral form for a prolapse and the form
asks for my gender and preferred pronouns. While it’s through maternity services, it does ask
about ejaculation so clearly a form
for either sex.

I think a lot of this relies on the central NHS record being correct. I deal with NHS stuff with my elderly mother a fair amount. They ask for her name, date of birth and postcode to link that back to her NHS record. When she was an inpatient recently her notes also had her known as name as she has always gone by a shortened form of her full name. I’m not sure any form I’ve seen recently has asked either sex or gender or pronouns. The problems will arise when the child or parent has got the medical record changed.

Please also consider reporting it to the Sullivan Review, which is collecting examples of data collection on sex and gender:

https://redcap.idhs.ucl.ac.uk/surveys/?s=9JLAM79XPM3L9L4K

Absolutely there needs to be a place to record sex, but it should be in addition to this box not instead of. (Although preferred pronouns is meh, just "known as" would suffice.)

Preferred name is a massive deal to lots of people. Many of my elderly care clients have gone by a nickname or middle name for decades, when they're ill/injured calling them by their real name would just make the situation worse for them. I go by a nickname and tense up if I'm called by my legal (full version) name, even more so for kids recording what to call them to make them most at ease is important

Yes definitely report to the gov consultation and definitely take full advantage of it being a paper form and go to town with your red pen

but it's a piece of paper? Cross it all through and write "Sex: M/F" (delete as appropriate)

Definitely report this using the link @Empowermenomore posted

I work in the NHS - no doubt this will have been pushed by someone in an equalities and diversity team who’s been reviewing various forms. I’d cross it out, replace it with ‘sex’ and write male or female, depending on the child in question.