Updated NHS single sex guidance to be published on Thursday 20th August

My MP did try to say it 'wasn't settled law'. Whatever tf that means.

I think the number of cases won by women proving the law does say what it actually says is like the number of women acceptably harmed in the name of the self expression of men with gender identities. Always n+1.

I bet the government is waiting for the Peggie employment appeal judgement, as this will set legal precedent.

They'll then be able to put on their big girl pants (a nod to Upton in court for anyone who remembers that lovely quote 🤢) and demand that the Department of Health and Social Care demands that NHS England demands that the ICBs demand that the Trusts update their policies and demand that the hospitals follow them.

Now that's what I can leadership #sarcasm

Cross-posting from Darlington thread

https://x.com/CConcern/status/2102045706773029152

BREAKING: Health minister Karin Smyth has told the Darlington nurses there is no plan for new NHS rules on single-sex spaces, despite the government previously promising action and institutions repeatedly saying they are 'waiting for guidance' following the Supreme Court ruling 18 months ago.

Bethany Hutchison and Annice Grundy met the minister in Leeds following the nurses’ landmark employment tribunal victory, supported by the Christian Legal Centre.

The nurses warned that, without clear national rules, NHS trusts remain free to impose policies that undermine the privacy, dignity and safety of female staff.

Bethany said: “The government has had long enough. The law is clear. Women should not have to go to court simply to secure a safe place to change.”

The Darlington nurses are calling for urgent, legally compliant NHS guidance protecting single-sex spaces.

See more on our website and breaking with the Daily Express.

https://christianconcern.com/ccpressreleases/health-minister-tells-darlington-nurses-there-is-no-plan-for-new-nhs-rules-on-single-sex-spaces/

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2250309/nhs-biological-sex-gender-hospitals

Yes, they are meaningless because they don't recognise female wards with TW on them (and male wards with TM on them) as mixed-sex. However, this has been a consistent problem throughout the reporting, so the pattern of the problem getting worse over time, as shown in the graph, is still meaningful.

Those figures are meaningless, unfortunately. The current (hopefully not for long) guidance explicitly says that a trans person on a ward that doesn’t match their biological sex is not a breach of the single sex accommodation rules, and should not be recorded as one.

That’s why we have no meaningful data on single sex wards since May 2009. See seeninhealth.org/map-timeline/

@BonfireLady There seems to be a move for all new build hospitals to have single rooms only. However, that may well be at the cost of safe monitoring of patients. This is from an older study (2015) which is still quoted today:

Two-thirds of patients expressed a preference for single rooms with comfort and control outweighing any disadvantages (sense of isolation) felt by some. Patients appreciated privacy, confidentiality and flexibility for visitors afforded by single rooms. Staff perceived improvements (patient comfort and confidentiality), but single rooms were worse for visibility, surveillance, teamwork, monitoring and keeping patients safe. Staff walking distances increased significantly post move. A temporary increase of falls and medication errors in one ward was likely to be associated with the need to adjust work patterns rather than associated with single rooms per se. We found no evidence that single rooms reduced infection rates. Building an all single-room hospital can cost 5% more with higher housekeeping and cleaning costs but the difference is marginal over time.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4819646/

Ah, I had (naively it would appear) assumed that mixed-sex wards were being phased out and becoming increasingly less likely these days.

According to the latest NHS information, sadly they seem to be on the increase:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/mixed-sex-accommodation/

Here's a graph ⬇️ from June 2026 showing the number of mixed-sex "breaches" (i e. occasions where these were found present, with shared sleeping and/or bathroom facilities) going steadily up. Ironically it's considerably worse since the decision was made to end mixed-sex wards in 2019.

Hopefully the inevitably incoming Streisand effect of all the TRAs demanding access to whichever ward matches their gender identity best will draw attention to the failings and help provide some public pressure to address this issue.

Thankfully for your mum, in this scenario the loud entitled male would be battling with the clinical needs of a male on a male ward.

I'm not sure about this. Mum has been on wards where the ward is mixed-sex but the bays are single-sex. So single side-rooms on that sort of ward might be available to either sex. I think you are correct, though, in anticipating that it will all quieten down once it is made clear that no-one is going to be sharing sleeping and bathroom facilities with the opposite sex just because of their gender identity belief.

Thankfully for your mum, in this scenario the loud entitled male would be battling with the clinical needs of a male on a male ward. But it's a fair point.

I would hope that the NHS has had enough practice already of prioritising needs even when someone is trying to position theirs as greater. Hopefully "the law is the law" on this means that they'll be confident enough to say no in scenarios where a trans-identifying person is trying to claim the greater need.

The main battle front is between male and female wards. Once the autogynophilic males realise they aren't getting their way on access to female wards, I suspect a lot of the noise will quieten down and those who genuinely believe themselves to have a gender identity that differs from their sex (and genuinely feel distressed) will be helped to understand that their belief-related needs are no more or less important than those of others' e.g. a religious need. The NHS can only accommodate non-clinical needs on a reasonable endeavours basis.

@BonfireLady I think there is a way to make these rooms available for dignity or belief reasons, as long as patients who are allocated them understand that they are lower priority than those who need it for clinical reasons.

I think that, in theory, you are correct. In practice, I wonder who will actually get priority. A frail, elderly woman with a neurological disease that affects thermoregulation, who needs the single room becaue it has aircon and the main ward doesn't (my mum), or a loud, entitled male who threatens bad publicity and lawsuits?

The absolute terror of saying if you're a man you go on a male ward irrespective of your identity is quite something.

@OldCrone I think worry about an old manifesto, despite it being a previous Labour policy to bring in the GRA, is the last thing on Yvette Cooper's mind when she avoids stating the obvious.

She could possibly be vaguely worried about votes, but this is not the same Labour now and all they really need to do when their backs are against the wall, is say "sorry, people, blame the law, not us."

if you're a man you go on a male ward YOU ARE A MAN irrespective of your identity

It's the very last thing that remains to be said, that will never be said by Labour (because Labour will never admit that they have been wrong all this time about the ideology and the activists). And it's the last thing that needs to be said, if we are ever to trust any of our politicians ever again.

As @Datun said, Cooper won't say it because she's up to her neck in this, and she's afraid of the (male) activists.

It was a Labour government which brought in the GRA, with its pretence that people could change sex. So saying if you're a man you go on a male ward irrespective of your identity is backing down on their previous position that men could become women if they really, really wanted to.

She is obviously hinting that they are trying to find some work-arounds to putting these men on male wards, but that will have to be single rooms or some such.

Yes, that was the hint that I picked up too.

Every health practitioner that I have spoken to will be very cross if the single room resource is used for any reason other than clinical necessity.

I think there is a way to make these rooms available for dignity or belief reasons, as long as patients who are allocated them understand that they are lower priority than those who need it for clinical reasons.

In my own experience, I was offered a side room when my appendix burst and I was admitted for emergency surgery. It happened 3 weeks after my first child was born and at the point when I was admitted, I was still breastfeeding her so she stayed with me in the room. Unfortunately after a couple of days it became clear that I couldn't continue because it was taking too much of a toll on my body but I was kept in the side room for the remainder of my time in hospital. It was made very clear to me right from the start that the room would be taken off me if it was needed for clinical reasons and I fully understood and accepted this.

TBF I can't remember if I was on a mixed-sex or single-sex ward but as my baby was with me and the ward doesn't have the same security as a maternity ward, I should imagine safeguarding came into play when I was initially allocated the room. I could see a case for safeguarding and dignity to be taken into consideration if a trans-identifying person was on a single-sex ward.

Obviously for any autogynophilic transwomen it would presumably come as a disappointment that they would have to choose between an open single-sex ward for males or a side room within that ward, but they would have no legal recourse so would have to lump it.

Bonkers. So it was fine to put a man in a bed next to women, compromising their privacy, dignity and safety, but in a men's ward he must be put in a private room to... To what? To save his blushes? To massage his ego?

She is obviously hinting that they are trying to find some work-arounds to putting these men on male wards, but that will have to be single rooms or some such. I do think that this is not going to do the TRAs any favours. When everyone could just shove TIMs into women's spaces it was easy, but now that alternatives are having to be found politicians and managers are going to get fed-up of the ridiculous demands being made of a cash-strapped country with an almost broken health service. Every health practitioner that I have spoken to will be very cross if the single room resource is used for any reason other than clinical necessity.

It's really quite extraordinary that no one actually wants to say the words out loud. They can say the law is the law, they can say needs will be accommodated as much as possible but we have to abide by the law.

The absolute terror of saying if you're a man you go on a male ward irrespective of your identity is quite something.

Here's Yvette Cooper being almost very clear about how very clear the law is:

https://youtube.com/shorts/5JcgqC-zKtE?si=MSSoBaKa2bCJoPR8

She did swerve the direct question about which ward a transwoman would go on. But she said that the law is the law and single sex means biological sex - I never expected that kind of sentence from her. This is progress.

This is from about 2 weeks ago and she mentioned NHS guidance coming out in the next few weeks.

I wonder if the guidance is being delayed a little so that the NHS can figure out how to answer that type of question in a unified way.

'It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that NHS England shelved the release of single sex spaces guidance last week. It may now be quietly slipped out just before or during the bank holiday Honestly, we don’t care when they release it, we just want them to release it. The guidance is already signed off. Women’s rights and lawful practice shouldn’t depend on timing games'

Nitter version:
https://nitter.net/GBNEWS/status/2091603385132757353#m

https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/2091603385132757353

Such a lack of confidence, shirking of responsibility and rejection of duty in our public institutions - we have really allowed our civic culture to degrade into moral relativism and illiberality.

https://x.com/SEENinHealth/status/2091481366059753813

Someone set the sprinklers off in Quarry House maybe....?🌧

Shame it’s delayed. I can’t help but think this unofficial advance notice may have been a mis-step. NHSE may have had a TRA flooding event…