NHS England has U-turned on plans for its latest ‘inclusive’ maternity programme after healthcare professionals accused it of “ideological capture”.
The proposed ‘Maternity Gender Inclusion Programme’ was withdrawn two days after the maternity care advocacy group With Woman flagged concerns.
The experts said the £100,000 scheme was based on ‘bogus research’ and lacked solid evidence.
‘Watershed moment’
Following NHS England’s climbdown, With Woman said: “This may be one of the first times a major programme based on flawed research and linked to gender activist organisations has been prevented in the UK public sector.
“At least for us in the maternity sector, it is a watershed moment and gives us great encouragement that ideologically-driven schemes with no evidence base will have no place in NHS maternity services.”
The programme was based on research from the taxpayer-funded LGBT Foundation.
gives us great encouragement that ideologically-driven schemes with no evidence base will have no place in NHS maternity services
The research was “not peer reviewed and contains significant flaws in its methodology and analysis”, according to the medics.
Tavistock example
The experts said a scandal similar to the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) could have been repeated.
They said it showed “how practice underpinned by poor research and the influence of advocacy organisations with a particular ideology has led to a scandal that we do not want to see repeated in maternity services”.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr David Bell, who was among those exposing Tavistock’s dangerous practices, said: “I am shocked at this repetition of ideology again trumping careful examination of the evidence and little thought as to the likely damage.”
‘Ideological capture’
On behalf of the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender, Dr Louise Irvine, said Dr Hilary Cass’ interim report on gender identity services implied that “areas of the NHS such as GIDS have been subject to ideological capture at the cost of person-centred, evidence-based care”.
She added: “We hope NHS maternity services do not make the same mistake.”
An NHS spokesman confirmed: “The NHS has already paused this programme while we look into its scope and so that it is based on the latest evidence.”
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