New NHS guidance on same sex accommodation

[LukewarmCustard]

The guidance starts out well. '1.2 Guidance statement: Providers of NHS-funded care are expected to have a zero-tolerance approach to mixed-sex accommodation, except where it is in the overall best interest of all patients affected.'

But then there is Annex B, which says 'Trans people should be accommodated according to their presentation: the way they dress, and the name and pronouns they currently use. This may not always accord with the physical sex appearance of the chest or genitalia. It does not depend on their having a gender recognition certificate (GRC) or legal name change. It applies to toilet and bathing facilities (except, for instance, that preoperative trans people should not share open shower facilities).' Annex B was apparently written with input from the Government Equalities Office.

NHS accommodation is now mixed sex accommodation with allocations based on pronouns.

That nursing times article really illustrates just how fast this ideology has taken hold. Worrying.

I thought of this thread when I read this

How would that work then?

I should have had a response to my FOI request to NHS Improvement about their Equality Impact Assessment by 30th October. I've heard nothing, not even an acknowledgement, so I've just sent them a message to remind them that they should have replied by now.

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/equality_impact_assessment_for_d_2#outgoing-957914

FOIrequester they have probably filed it next to the Welsh Assembly’s equality impact assessments...

Their stand off attitude was more to do with her vile behaviour than her penis!

This sounds like a line out of Shakespeare, with the usual oxymoron being 'her penis'!

This is totally unacceptable. This means the boundary pushing types get to have all the boundaries removed for them. Foxes welcomed into the hen house.

It’s not ethical to put off patients from receiving hospital care. nor for receiving care to put them at more risk than if they’d stayed at home. How many women will have to start discharging themselves early because they are being made to feel uncomfortable? It’s awful.

You could argue that it’s actually against the acceptable professional standards set for doctors by the General Medical Council, for the NHS to ask them to stand by while they house patients in conditions that are potentially unsafe and which remove dignity and comfort.

GMC code:

Raising and acting on concerns about patient safety

You must take prompt action if you think patient safety, dignity or comfort is being compromised.

www.gmc-uk.org/ethical-guidance/ethical-guidance-for-doctors/raising-and-acting-on-concerns

Nurses and other regulated HCPs will have a similar whistleblowing duty placed on them by their regulatory bodies.

I've finally had a reply to my FOI request to NHS Improvement about this guidance.

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/equality_impact_assessment_for_d_2#incoming-1488421

Equality and Health Inequalities –Full Analysis Form

I haven't had time to read it all yet, but what I've read so far is not promising.

"The issue in relation to age is around sensitivity resulting from a lack of awareness and acceptability of trans patients by some of an older generation...The guidance is clear that in situations where sensitivity towards trans patients occurs on a ward there may be some circumstances where it is lawful to provide a different service or exclude a trans person from a single sex ward of their preferred gender but only if this is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. This relates to all patients and not just those within one of the groups identified within the 2010 Act."

It's interesting that they talk about a 'preferred gender'. I thought the argument was that people had a 'gender identity' which was an innate part of their being and was not something that was chosen. The NHS seem to consider being transgender as a choice (but one which must override biological reality).

If only the "older generation" cares, it can't be that important.

“Lack of awareness” my fucking arse. I’m only too aware of trans issues and only too aware of what this means for my safety and dignity in a medical setting.

How bizarre, they think it has no impact on the protected characteristic of sex!!

What a fucking joke of an impact assessment.....

I was a bit confused about this part which implies that the transgender guidance is not new and has not been updated since 2009:
"In terms of the MSA breach guidance, the revisions do not relate to the transgender policy in “Annex B: Delivering same-sex accommodation for trans people and gender variant children”. This is because there has been no change to the policy at annex B since originally published in 2009."

So I did a search for the guidance they meant, and I found this from 2009:
webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130104221201/http:/www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_098893.pdf

It was mentioned in this article, which has been discussed here before.
medium.com/@anneharperwright/sex-gender-the-nhs-1e8f4e6363a6

The 2009 guidance was written by GIRES.

Patronising, minimising bastards.

Sadly this is true, and has been for a while now.
If you ID as the opposite sex then that is where you are placed.
To be fair, they will try and put TW into a cubicle, but sadly, if that is needed for an infected, palliative etc then they will be on the general ward.
Don’t blame the NHS, blame the culture and the current government.
If the NHS does not abide by the current legislation then they will be fined and have to pay huge compensation. No I do not agree, but am sadly bemused by the numbers of transgender individuals going through my ward. ( paediatrics). It is becoming almost a contagion.

Well my 11 year old cares so it's not only the 'older generation'

She knows a hawk from a handsaw too.

gizmo are you talking about numbers of so called transgender children?? Or members of staff?