Name changed
Response from the BMA re the vote. My email focused solely on the impact on female patients/treatment to gender dysphoric presenting children.
Utterly useless. Not good enough BMA.
Thank you for your email regarding the motion passed by the British Medical Association’s representative body in relation to healthcare for trans and non-binary people.
We appreciate that this is a sensitive and complex issue, and one on which our members and the public hold a range of views. However, after a considered debate of the issue at our ARM (annual representatives meeting), where diverse and opposing viewpoints were heard, the representative body voted to back the motion.
The vote affirms the BMA’s support for transgender and nonbinary individuals’ equal rights to live their lives with dignity which includes the right to equal access to healthcare. We oppose discrimination of all kinds and are committed to ensuring universal access to healthcare for all on the basis of clinical need.
We recognise and support the Equality Act provisions in regard to the provision of single sex spaces and services where this is deemed objectively justified in law, as set out and in line with the Equality Act 2010** and in the explanatory notes to that Act. We will take forward our work in line with all relevant legislation.
The motion does not propose changing or removing existing rights of patients to request same sex doctors or to refuse to be treated by an individual doctor. The BMA believes that all staff, and all patients, are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.
The motion passed by the representative body is a statement of the Association’s position as a trade union and professional body for doctors. The BMA is not a legislative ore regulatory body: the passing of this motion therefore does not make any change to existing law or NHS guidance. Rather, the vote affirms that the BMA’s own policy position is to support transgender and nonbinary individuals’ equal rights to live their lives with dignity, which includes the right to equal access to healthcare.
The BMA defines gender as “socially constructed characteristics, often expressed in terms of masculinity and femininity, that are largely culturally determined and often assigned by sex at birth”. ‘Gender identity’ is defined as ‘the way in which an individual identifies with a gender category’. These definitions are in line with the definitions used by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and with the UK Government.
The BMA is clear that the safety of all patients and healthcare workers is critical. Risk assessments are the responsibility of individual NHS organisations. Localised risk assessments are undertaken dependent on the complexity and presentation of the patient and other patients in the care environment to ensure patient safety and that reasonable adjustments are made.