Javid calls on NHS bosses to protect single sex wards following EHRC guidance

[ResisterRex]

In the Telegraph. Quite a long article with relevant bits below.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/07/sajid-javid-nhs-should-follow-ruling-allows-trans-bans-female/

"Mr Javid has “welcomed” the guidance and will be telling NHS England that they must make it a part of their ongoing review into single-sex wards"

"The intervention of the Health Secretary, which was welcomed by women's rights campaigners, comes after The Telegraph revealed that there was a mutiny among NHS bosses who were publicly refusing to follow the Equality and Human Rights Commissionn_’s (EHRC) clarification on the law."

"A senior Government source on Thursday night told The Telegraph: “The Health Secretary welcomes this guidance from the EHRC and will be asking the NHS to take it fully into account as part of the review into same-sex wards.”
Mr Javid has made a number of interventions in the heated debate in recent days, including saying that sport should be based on sex not genderr_ and urging caution on banning conversion therapy for trans people.
A hard-fought campaign by health professionals and patient groups saw NHS Trusts ordered to eliminate mixed-sex wards more than a decade ago except in circumstances where it was clinically necessary, such as critical care. Breaches must be reported, and hospitals face fines if they do not comply."

Bev Jackson quoted

"Bev Jackson, a co-founder of the LGB Alliance which was among the groups to raise concerns, said on Thursday night that they were “delighted to hear Sajid Javid’s intervention in support of single-sex wards”.
“However, in order for this to be meaningful, we must have a clear understanding of the term “biological woman”, she said, warning that the idea that self-identified gender supersedes sex in all situations is having a “worrying” influence in the training of NHS staff.
“LGB Alliance, along with a large number of concerned NHS professionals, will be happy to meet the Secretary of State at any time to discuss these issues in more detail,” Ms Jackson added."

Also in The Times:

Sajid Javid urges health chiefs to protect women-only hospital wards

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/7a7feb6e-b6c5-11ec-8c29-375fe0cc1f19?shareToken=288b90b9783d027ba75988cecd5b0dc5

Good, but he needs to do more. The NHS needs to be politically neutral. That means no Rainbow badges, no Stonewall, no staff networks with weird Twitter accounts. Some professionalism would be a start.

I think it's also the front page of the Mail

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10697587/NHS-protect-wards-women-Sajid-Javid-wades-trans-row-female-wards.html

The Telegraph story is featured on the front page too.

I agree there is much more than needs to be done. I wondered if he can't be prescriptive because the review is underway. Then again, the review seems like it decided to ignore the law before the EHRC clarified it!

I agree @tabbycatstripythe nhs, police and schools should all be politically neutral and the fact nhs employees felt safe enough to publicly announce they would ignore the law is very concerning. I can see why they would be worried about trans members of staff being abused etc,and that they need protection too, but this must be balanced with patients right. There may be patients who do not mind what sex the person caring for them is, and that is fine,and in many cases the norm, but for those cases where sex of the career does matter, provisions must be in place so that people feel comfortable to request that provision without being castigated for it.

Getting rid of political symbols and SM accounts linked with taxpayer funded places of work and public services is easy. Public servants are not allowed to do all those things anyway so that simply needs to be said and enforced. If the leaders aren't enforcing it then they're falling foul of this too, surely?

Annex B is the more technical issue that seems to have some people so invested in making wards mixed-sex, it's gone on decades.

The NHS bosses refusing to implant the EHRC guidance may really make their position worse. Now it’s been highlighted in the press, then it raises the question of what stonewall in particular is doing and what other good practice is being ignored for the sake of ideology. It hopefully will prompt a much bigger investigation of what’s happening that might have occurred

@tabbycatstripy

Good, but he needs to do more. The NHS needs to be politically neutral. That means no Rainbow badges, no Stonewall, no staff networks with weird Twitter accounts. Some professionalism would be a start.

Absolutely this.

I was a bit concerned to read of Javid only 'asking' for it to be taken fully into account. But then I realised the Secretary of State asking means ordering.

And what's going to happen to the ring leaders of this mutiny, like the vastly over-promoted & over-paid T Hewitt? Dismissal would be a salutary lesson.

There's also this by Debbie Hayton. It's long and covers a lot of ground including the EHRC guidance and why it's right

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10697843/DEBBIE-HAYTON-Lets-end-nonsense-spoken-trans-women.html

A lot of coverage today, all in all

Thanks for all the links.

Good. I agree keep it out of the NHS, police and schools. I'm surprised the NHS doesn't have a social media policy. Most civil servant bodies do. You are not allowed to post anything that may bring the organisation into disrepute. I should think a load of managers stating quite publicly that they are going to ignore the EHRC is a disciplinary matter.
Sorry if any typos I have adverts taking up half my phone screen so makes it very hard to see what I am typing!

Ditto on the adverts - I think MNHQ might want us to use the app but I find the main site more readable on my phone.

Here's another 334...

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10698143/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-long-woke-spell-broken.html

It ends:

"Next, Mr Johnson should have in his crosshairs our schools and universities, which stand accused of promulgating trendy but divisive ideologies.
Those who dare to question woke doctrines are treated as dangerous heretics.
Education is a sphere where freedom of speech and thought (the foundation stones of any liberal democracy) should be actively encouraged – not intolerantly silenced."

I should have made a list!

Good.
I so hope the situation is similar at the MOJ (I think that's Victoria Atkins' remit?).

It's not helpful of the DM to sey trans people can be excluded. They aren't excluded, they can use the service according to their sex.

I feel uncomfortable at the thought of fully ‘transitioned’ people being made to use the services associated with their natal sex. I can see that would be humiliating. It’s reasonable for them to make their needs clear to the provider and be offered the use of private third spaces. The issue here is that many regard this ‘outing’ as humiliating, and I understand this as well but I think it’s the compromise that’s going to have to happen.

I am very relieved to see this coverage in the media today. The number of senior NHS leaders openly defying the EHRC guidance was shocking to witness. All archived here as many of them subsequently protected their tweets:
mobile.twitter.com/selfcommit2othe/status/1511138798436036612
It’s also eye-opening how much time these folks spend on Twitter!

@tabbycatstripy

I feel uncomfortable at the thought of fully ‘transitioned’ people being made to use the services associated with their natal sex. I can see that would be humiliating. It’s reasonable for them to make their needs clear to the provider and be offered the use of private third spaces. The issue here is that many regard this ‘outing’ as humiliating, and I understand this as well but I think it’s the compromise that’s going to have to happen.

It wouldn't need to be 'outing' though would it? Lots of patients are allocated private side rooms (sometimes at a cost but that could be waived in this situation) for a variety of reasons that nobody other than the patient and their HCPs know about.

No, I know - they literally mean they don’t want to ‘out’ themselves to the HCPs. That’s why they don’t want the NHS collecting data on natal sex. Some of them consider it a human rights violation for anyone to know they have transitioned.

Personally I think that is a bridge too far. There is a certain amount society can do to help people who want to live as a different gender. Pretending not to know or ever care about natal sex isn’t on the list of those things for me.

@tabbycatstripy

No, I know - they literally mean they don’t want to ‘out’ themselves to the HCPs. That’s why they don’t want the NHS collecting data on natal sex. Some of them consider it a human rights violation for anyone to know they have transitioned.

Personally I think that is a bridge too far. There is a certain amount society can do to help people who want to live as a different gender. Pretending not to know or ever care about natal sex isn’t on the list of those things for me.

Sorry, I see what you mean. Yes the NHS needs to know everyone's sex otherwise some procedures and medications just become plain dangerous to the patient.

Yes, natal sex (and, if different from natal sex, gender) can be collected without shame in my opinion. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

As I've said on other threads, we need these words followed up with quick actions and policy otherwise we haven't moved very far forward.

The excuse about it being outing to have to use separate spaces is just another excuse. Transwomen rarely pass despite what they think. Whilst I appreciate it must be difficult for them their options are use natal sex space or their own private space because there is nothing wrong with a woman complaining about men in their spaces. So they need to see that they need ti choose the space where they are least likely to be noticed/outed and that is a private space.

I don't care what surgery someone has had, single sex spaces need to remain at that. I think this maybe could have been different if the conversation has been respectful however the 'old' traditional transwomen have not stepped into the debate enough.

I think this maybe could have been different if the conversation has been respectful however the 'old' traditional transwomen have not stepped into the debate enough.

They have. They were the ones who campaigned for the original GRA, and many are in favour of self ID.

Transwomen "out" themselves by their very existence. None pass without photographic filters and camera angle manipulation imo. They should either stay with the men or accept a third space.

This week just keeps getting better and better. At this rate I'm going to need some sun tan lotion with all this sunlight 🌞