NHS England bars trans women from female-only hospital wards under new guidance

NHS England has issued new rules requiring hospitals to allocate single-sex wards and facilities according to biological sex rather than gender identity, changing the previous approach to accommodation for transgender patients and staff.Published on Thursday, the guidance covers hospital wards, toilets and changing rooms. It says transgender patients should be accommodated in line with their biological sex, while their clinical needs, privacy, dignity and safety must be considered alongside those of other patients.However, the guidance makes clear that clinical needs take priority when they cannot be reconciled with the requirements for same-sex accommodation.The changes follow a Supreme Court ruling last year that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer to biological sex and do not include transgender women holding gender recognition certificates. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has also revised its code to state that facilities must be organised by biological sex to qualify as single-sex services under the Act.Trans groups warn of difficulties in hospitalsTransActual and Trans+ Solidarity Alliance criticised the new rules, arguing that hospitals facing staff and resource shortages could struggle to implement them.In a joint statement, the organisations said the guidance could create operational problems and leave healthcare professionals uncertain about how to treat transgender patients safely.“Forcing trans people into spaces for our sex assigned at birth will never be the most clinically appropriate decision, and would push trans people away from accessing care,” as cited by The Guardian.The groups also accused the government of allowing political considerations to take precedence over patient care by failing to resolve the legal uncertainty surrounding the issue.Separate guidance for NHS staff requires organisations to review their facilities to protect the privacy, dignity and safety of all employees. NHS trusts that primarily provide single-sex facilities may offer alternatives, including individual lockable rooms or mixed-sex facilities with separate lockable spaces.The previous NHS England guidance allowed patients and staff to use wards and facilities according to their gender identity.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.