Hospital Trust will not guarantee same-sex intimate care

Women and girls may unknowingly receive intimate care from a biological male who self-identifies as a female, an NHS Trust has said.

In a letter leaked to influential think tank Policy Exchange, North Bristol NHS Trust stated that it allowed employees to self-ID their gender and did not ask about their biological sex.

Last year, a woman had her surgery cancelled by a private hospital in London after she requested to have only female nursing staff for her post-op care.

Sex-swap certificate

In February 2021, the then Trust Chief Executive – Evelyn Barker –informed a complainant that patients may be given information about staff “involved in their treatment”.

However, she continued, “there is no requirement for clinicians to disclose their gender identity”.

She added: “The Trust accepts that there may be some exceptions where a transgender person will be expected to disclose their gender identity such as where they are required to undertake personal care on vulnerable people.

“This statement will be rare and, where the staff member has their Gender Recognition Certificate and is fully transitioned to their preferred gender, this will not apply.”

‘Consent’

Report author Lottie Moore commented: “The principle of intimate same-sex care rests upon the notion that a patient can consent to a treatment only when they know the sex of the clinician treating them.

“A person’s right to same-sex intimate care must be upheld for the sake of patient safety, dignity and privacy.”

Moor also argued: “The NHS is increasingly becoming influenced by gender identity ideology, which disregards the realities and immutability of biological sex.”

Unjustified

Responding in the report’s foreword to the revelations, Nimco Ali OBE, independent expert on violence against females, said she believed “the NHS to be seriously compromised by an ideology that is diminishing the rights of women and girls”.

While acknowledging the need for transgender people to be protected from discrimination, she added that “certain policies cannot be blindly endorsed simply because one minority is shouting the loudest for them”.

She concluded, there is “no legitimate reason” for a hospital not guaranteeing “intimate same-sex care”.