No longer having the right to see a female GP?

[EarthSight]

I read the following on the NHS website today and it seems that women may no longer have the right to ask to see a female sexed GP any more. Gender has effectively replaced sex (a protected characteristic) under the NHS.

www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/nhs-services-and-treatments/can-i-choose-to-see-a-male-or-female-gp/

You can ask to see a male or female GP, as long as your surgery has both male and female GPs available.

Other information may also be provided about the healthcare professionals who work at the surgery, such as:

<strong>the names of non-medical staff</strong>
<strong>the gender of each healthcare professional</strong>

@Joeblack066

Good god do you all think that a male Dr looks at you sexually when examining?! Get a grip, please! Should the dying patient refuse my paramedic son then?! Are you so irresistible that one look at your magic vagina and he will molest you?! And as for the vitriol towards the trans woman gp ffs take a look at yourselves. Grow up.

No, not at all. But it’s essential that females are allowed—legally—to have female doctors.

There are many, many reasons for this. It’s about protecting members of our society.

Again, many won’t mind, but the protection must be there for everyone, as much as possible, practical, so they can continue to live full lives and receive the benefits of services and freedom.

It’s not about your magic vagina (well done, you) or about life-saving measures. It’s about rights, human dignity for all, and privacy.

Very tricky stuff.

@joeblack066

You can continue to see any type of GP that you want but you don't have the right to decide for every other female. I get to decide what boundaries I have.

@eurochick

I read the "let" sentence as "I GOT TO TOUCH REAL VULVA. YAY ME". Which is just what you want from your GP.

It's actually worse than that. Presumably they will have examined women before. They are crowing about being 'let' examine women who wouldn't previously have allowed it. It's all about the power and validation.

Why do people get so angry about women having boundaries and saying no? Even to someone else? To borrow a question from the wokesters, how does it affect you?

ArabellaScott

What was the case in greater Glasgow and Clyde where a woman had tried to ask specifically for a female HCP and had been held up as an example of bigotry and transphobia? Maybe last year?

Not in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, but this sounds very much like what happened in Brighton last year to Clare Dimyon.

Gay rights campaigner Clare Dimyon, 54, went to the hospital just before Christmas last year for the mammogram, and wrote a letter requesting a natal female.

In August, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust published its new trans policy – and included the letter as an example of “highly discriminatory” correspondence from patients which should be referred to the hospital’s equality diversity and inclusion team.

www.brightonandhovenews.org/2019/12/09/hospital-apologises-to-rape-victim-for-branding-her-request-for-same-sex-breast-screening-medic-as-transphobic/

@FloralBunting

Why do people get so angry about women having boundaries and saying no? Even to someone else? To borrow a question from the wokesters, how does it affect you?

When someone gets upset by others' boundaries, it's a good indication that those boundaries are especially important.

Whenever I've requested a Drs appointment, I've nearly always been offered a female doctor. The one time I wasn't it was for an emergency appointment (as in get to the surgery asap and the next doctor will see your baby). If that was being offered, I would expect to see a female doctor. Not one who puts their feelings before their patients.

There are very good reasons to prefer a female doctor, even if you have no sexual trauma and even if you are unconcerned about a risk of sexual assault that's a couple of orders of magnitude higher.

Female doctors are more competent.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2593255

(aside: if there were an evidence base that female doctors are costing their patients' lives, people would be trying to get women banned from medical school.)

I was once seriously sexual assaulted during an examination by a male doctor. I was very young (17) and very frightened. I have never ever ever been alone with a male health professional since. If I went for a smear test and a man was in that room I would leave. I wouldn’t dare complain and I probably wouldn’t go back. There are many many many others in my situation. It isn’t about transphobia, it is a visceral physical reaction to a male bodied person.

@Mammatino

I was once seriously sexual assaulted during an examination by a male doctor. I was very young (17) and very frightened. I have never ever ever been alone with a male health professional since. If I went for a smear test and a man was in that room I would leave. I wouldn’t dare complain and I probably wouldn’t go back. There are many many many others in my situation. It isn’t about transphobia, it is a visceral physical reaction to a male bodied person.

Jesus, that's awful

That GP shows no understanding of female socialisation. Their patients giving consent does not mean they are happy or comfortable with the situation.
We are socialised to be nice, be kind, put other people’s feelings first, be grateful, don’t make a fuss, don’t cause a scene, make sure everyone likes you...

Mammatino I'm so sorry.

I don't mind a male GP for most appointments. I would not want a male for gynae related issues. If I was met with a male - whatever they were wearing and however they wore their hair - I would leave and move practise. I would be highly unlikely to say anything or make a complaint, as we all know what would happen.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/07/gp-manish-shah-sexually-assaulted-24-patients-given-three-life-sentences

Article here on a doctor: 'Manish Shah committed 90 assaults on patients he gave unnecessary examinations to'

'the “lack of trust” created by Shah meant many of the women now refused to see male doctors.'

I would hope their wishes are respected.

Mammatino that's just awful.
I'm so sorry and not surprised you are one of the many women who need a female GP.

And it shouldn't come to point where women feel forced to disclose this stuff when to do so is potentially retraumatising, especially given the empathy bypass displayed by so many who profess to be "woke". Women are allowed female specific services by law, aren't they?

“And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.“

Perhaps why that let was so troubling to many of us (not envy)

The GP in the guardian article made me feel sick. These women haven’t consented to being touched by a man.

@Stripesgalore

I don’t believe that doctor.

I don’t either. No fucking way.

I don’t either

And joeblack. How rude and disrespectful to women you are 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Go say that to your mum and see what she says when you talk in that way to women.

I talked about this on another thread which got deleted, so I'll repeat it here.

My model for informed consent and respect towards patients from HCPs.

I had a wonderful consultant obstetrician for my pregnancy (was an "elderly primagravida" hence consultant-led care). He took a lot of time explaining risks, possible courses of action, what they knew for sure and what was educated guess based on professional experience. An absolute model of explaining stuff to the patient, making her a partner in the decision making process and enabling informed consent.

I went overdue (something they get very jumpy about with older mothers because of the elevated risk of plancental failure). He said "I suppose we should try a sweep... stay here while I get a midwife to do it." I have no doubt whatsoever that he would have been perfectly competent to do it (and in fact, because I had built a huge relationship of trust I wouldn't have had a problem with this). But his immediate thought, because he had oodles of empathy and was extremely good at his job, and put what his patients needed first, was to go and get a female HCP to do it.

That's what proper, patient-led care should look like.

@ArabellaScott

'A lot of my patients were quite conservative — many female patients wore long clothes, or the hijab — but they allowed me to examine them despite my change. In fact, after my transition, they even allowed me to perform more intimate examinations that they did not let me to do when I was a male GP. Every single one of them refused my offer of a chaperone even when they knew that I am transgender.'

bjgp.org/content/67/660/313

Same doctor.

That person is either lying or putting up major red flags.

It’s like applause presents cards. All validating

Jeez where the heck does this person work.

It’s like a fantasy

If that doctor really is putting their hands on females from conservative backgrounds then that means the staff taking the appointments are lying to the patients who ask for a doctor of the female sex. If that’s the case then that whole surgery is concluding in the abuse of females, as many women will freeze when confronted with a male bodied person and told they are going to put their hands on them. My heart breaks for the females who attend that surgery. They must feel so violated.

I wouldn't want to be treated by a doctor who put their own need for validation above the welfare of their patient for any reason.

@Mammatino I am so very, very sorry that happened to you.

My mother was a nurse and she insisted on women doctors for her DDs because she had "seen too much," from some of the male physicians she worked with. She also felt a woman physician would best understand and empathize with our bodies.

I had a male obstetrician when I gave birth to one DD. He's was wonderful!!! But, when I can, I choose female physicians for myself and my DDs.

@Mammatino, I'm so sorry that that happened to you. It's awful.

I had a less extreme bad experience with a male GP when I was in my early 30s. It was a very uncomfortable example of what I later discovered to have been a "TUBE" (totally unnecessary breast exam - my medic friends have confirmed that this was absolutely what it was). While I'm still OK under most circumstances with male GPs (I've had some really excellent ones), it's left me with a strong preference for females (and a horrid lurking sense of shame that I went along with the TUBE), again at a visceral level.

Women really need to be able to choose, in an honest and transparent fashion.