Jennifer Melle wins settlement from NHS

[RoyalCorgi]

Haven't seen a thread about this anywhere else, but Jennifer Melle, the nurse who refused to refer to a convicted sex offender by his preferred pronouns, and was disciplined, has won a settlement from the NHS trust she works for.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2vlxdnnpqo

I don’t believe anyone should be forced to pander to the lies and charades of these men so it’s a very easy one to answer for me.

Excellent news! I hope she's feeling relieved.

It's my recollection that he had to have a catheter removed. Him wanting to leave precipitated that. Which was the medical issue.

She hasn't said that it's got anything to do with him being a paedophile, either.

But I'm sure it does matter to some people. Some people are happy to call men female if it's a family member, but not if it's a convicted rapist.

I don't think that had a bearing on Jennifer. But it will on quite a few people.

The point is her calling him a male was perfectly legitimate, for whatever reason. Him calling her the N word and lunging at her wasn't.

We haven't reached a stage in this country where correctly identifying someone's sex is any sort of a crime. In fact, we're going in the other direction.

But be that as it may. Their issue was with her going to the press. That was what the case was about.

so, presumably, even they recognised she hadn't actually done anything wrong.

Arguments for why women must be forced to capitulate to men's demands, aside, I'm delighted that Jennifer has been vindicated.

And hope it encourages other women to go to the press. It's the only way.

How did she know this person was a convicted peadophile at the time? I can only see that the person arrived from the sex offender wing of a male prison.

Because she and other members of her team were told as such?

I'm trying my best to be polite here, but the fact that your first reaction on a feminist board of all places, was to heap blame on a woman and victim of horrific racial abuse, really does say a lot.

There's also nothing to suggest that the paedophile received anything less than the best professional care from Ms Melle or any of the other medical staff. Using correct sex language, especially in a medical setting isn't unprofessional:

Jennifer, who had worked her way up to become a senior nurse, had been told along with her colleagues that Mr X had been brought in for treatment from a men’s prison and was a sex offender.

He entered the hospital chained to two guards and was clearly masculine in appearance, standing over six feet tall and of large build.

At 10pm, a junior colleague approached Miss Melle in a distressed state saying that Mr X wanted to self-discharge. He was shouting and upsetting other elderly and vulnerable patients on the ward.

The doctor had been called for guidance on the discharge but had not yet responded. As the senior nurse on the ward, Jennifer followed her colleague to take charge of the situation and to provide support.

Looking at the patient’s medical records, she saw that the patient was recorded as male, not female or ‘transgender’. On the name board next to the bed, it simply gave the feminine name.

With her colleague finally getting through to the doctor on the phone, Jennifer requested to speak to him. She said to the doctor that: ‘Mr X would like to self-discharge.’
Overhearing the call, enraged Mr X screamed: “Do not call me Mr! I am a woman!”

Still on the phone to the doctor, Jennifer called back to Mr X that she was speaking to the doctor and was working out what medication could be given before he was discharged.

https://christianconcern.com/news/jennifer-melle-wins-settlement-from-nhs-after-10-month-long-legal-battle/

‘Imagine if I called you n’, Mr X yelled. ‘How about I call you n? Yes, black n!’

Jennifer said if he carried on, she would have to call security.

Mr X then lunged threateningly towards Jennifer and pursued her out of the room until he was eventually held back by the guards.

But she provoked him, I'm so sorry, "her" right? 🙃

Completely normal, totally professional, in fact cool under the most extreme circumstances.

And yes, who the hell tries to defend this?

It seems the bat signal has really gone up on FWR lately.

As PP have said, it's like it's 2015.

Well it fucking isn't.

'Susan Jones' is always male having been born with XY chromosomes.

When will it be that NHS trusts across the board will stop with this ridiculous agenda and healthcare professionals will not be sanctioned for stating biological fact or being respected and have single sex changing spaces? And the rest!

If this person had been an "ordinary" trans person and NOT a violent and revolting sex offender, would it have been more or less ok to call them "Mr Jones" ?

Perfectly acceptable to refer to a male person using a male pronoun when talking about them.

Still on the phone to the doctor, Jennifer called back to Mr X that she was speaking to the doctor and was working out what medication could be given before he was discharged.

Critical for the doctor to know the sex of the patient regarding medication prior to discharge or would you rather @AlwaysNuance the patient was given incorrect medication/dosage by the nurse failing to give the correct details of the persons sex? You would be happy for the consequences of that? Presumably you would as long as it wasn't you facing those consequences and all that would be okay with you because at least the person wasn't referred to by the correct pronoun for their sex.

"Previously male" ??? Still is, alwaysnuance

I have a feeling that however Jennifer had referred to this man, even using the terms alwaysnuance has suggested, would not have been good enough. Nothing except total capitulation is enough.
It was a disgusting, racist attack on a woman trying to do her job, and is inexcusable.
It sounds like she had no support from her trust or her union either.

I didn't know that a white doctor had used 'Mr' - that's interesting isn't it?
The comment from the Trust is but but...disgraceful.
How much longer is the cash strapped NHS going to carry on defending cases like this? It needs stopping.

Anyway congratulations to Jennifer 🌷
And sorry to hear that @Gettingbysomehow How awful for you 🌷

Exactly. Everyone who comes into contact with him can see this “private medical information”.

He is a Mr, he is a bloke, a male.

Just read this. So pleased for Jennifer. I hope the rest of this process is soon behind her. Disgraceful it happened at all and that it's taking so long.

Had a phone call from Ipso Mori about voting, etc.

One question was about ‘local concerns’.

I live only a few miles from Kirkcaldy Vic, so I raised the Sandie Peggie case and the failure of certain politicians to take safeguarding seriously.

@AlwaysNuance

"Yeah, nah.
The sex of a person may indeed be of paramount importance in certain medical situations. There are ways and ways of saying that in situations where it is important. One could say "the patient in cubicle 5 who is a trans woman, born male" or "Susan Jones, who is transgender". You don't have to say "Mr Jones"."

So the black nurse who was racially abused by a violent, convicted 6ft bearded paedophile with a penis deserved all she fucking got. Right? And the NHS was right to spaff half a milion pounds trying to destroy her. Right again?

It would be completely unprofessional and bordering on negligence for a nurse to mis-sex a patient. He is, was and always will be male. Apparently he has a 'feminine' name so even more reason for the nurse to say 'mister' over the phone. She made it absolutely clear to the patient that she would use his preferred name, but would not use pronouns to lie.

We are done with compelled speech @AlwaysNuance

I agree.

This whole idea of 'preferred pronouns' needs to go in the bin.

His racist and abusive reaction to her is likely a reflection of the extreme trans capture of the prison service? The service where civil servants and senior staff in the MoJ / Home Office have got very excited about placing men in women's prisons and devising policies where the even the most extreme paedophiles / sex offenders get to insist on pronoun usage etc.

He'd no doubt been demanding wrong sex pronouns etc since his incarceration with officers being compelled to lie for fear of losing their jobs.

Coming up against the medical reality of his sex was evidently a shock with Jennifer being becoming his victim, as well as being the victim of her also captured employers.

Apparently she is still facing an NMC hearing. Be interesting to see what they make of it. They can strike people off for the arbitrary offence of “being unprofessional “. Bringing the profession into disrepute, etc.

which sometimes seems to translate as “not being kind”

not sure how captured they are

Congratulations to Jennifer, I hope she's found a better employer already.

Did you misspell your username @AlwaysNuance ?

Absolutely it is. I think that's true whoever the patient is or whoever the medical staff member is.

However, an added element of interest in this case is that Jennifer Melle is a Christian and felt that to pretend that a man is a woman came into conflict with her Christian beliefs. Given that Christianity is a protected belief under the Equality Act, this could have made for a very interesting discussion if it had gone to court.

She was speaking on the phone to a doctor about the patient. The issue was a sex dependent one. Using ‘he’ was the appropriate thing for her to do.

Perhaps the hospital could put its efforts into addressing the fact that its maternity service is rated 'requires improvement'.
Thirty years ago I knew a couple of GPs who would try to avoid sending their pregnant women there for maternity care. Looks like not much has changed.