Sex assault victim denied surgery following request for female-only staff

A woman who had her surgery cancelled after she requested to have only female nursing staff for her post-op care.

The patient, who said she had been a victim of sexual assault, was scheduled to undergo specialist bowel surgery at the Princess Grace Hospital in London, one of just a handful to offer the particular operation.

But after asking for female-only care, she was informed that her surgery had been cancelled because the hospital “did not share her beliefs” and she was told to make alternative arrangements for her surgery.

Personal history

Due to her personal history, the unnamed woman initially made the request for single-sex accommodation during the admissions process.

But when an intimate pre-operation assessment was interupted by a employee who appeared to be transgender, she began to panic that men would be attending to her “intimate care at the hospital” while she was “immobilised for an entire week following major surgery”.

The encounter made her feel uncomfortable and prompted her again to request female-only nursing staff.

‘Unsafe for women’

In a letter to the hospital’s parent company, HCA Healthcare, the patient highlighted the recent legal case involving Maya Forstater, in which a judge affirmed that gender critical beliefs are protected under the Equality Act and are “worthy of respect”.

She said she believed there had been instances of women being attacked on hospital wards by men identifying as women, adding that “mixed sex hospital facilities are unsafe for women”.

The patient also said: “Please do not make life difficult for women when they are at their most vulnerable by forcing them into uncomfortable and embarrassing situations.”

Cancelled

In response, the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer told her that they were committed to protecting staff from “unacceptable distress” and would not offer single-sex care after her operation.

The patient told the Mail Online: “I am still in a state of shock at this punitive and discriminatory reaction by the CEO of this hospital which specialises in women’s procedures.”

She added: “Women’s safety, dignity and privacy continues to be sacrificed on the altar of this quasi religion. I cannot believe this is happening in the UK.”

Transgender ‘orthodoxy’

Conservative Peer Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, chair of the parliamentary campaign group Children and Women First, told the hospital that she was “astonished” by the incident and raised the issue with the Care Quality Commission for investigation.

Kellie-Jay Keen, of the campaign group Standing For Women, said: “Once we are in a society whereby women are compelled to pretend men can be women, and everything must flow from such orthodoxy, there is no end to the consequences.”

Following the backlash and a CitizenGo petition which gathered over 17,000 signatures in 48 hours, HCA Healthcare agreed to honour its commitment to performing the woman’s life-saving operation and post-op care, but moved her to another HCA hospital which has the required specialist equipment.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission issued guidance earlier this year which said providers are legally able to limit services to single sex, provided the reasons are justified and proportionate.