A rare outbreak of sanity has struck the Health Service. New guidance from NHS England has stated that patients should be accommodated according to their biological sex and not their claimed 'gender identity',
The health service’s previous code of practice allowed ‘transgender’ and ‘non-binary’ patients to choose for themselves whether they stayed on a male or female-only ward.
But now, to comply with the UK Supreme Court ruling that the definition of a woman is determined by biology not ideology under the Equality Act, all NHS healthcare settings in England must provide services on the basis of biological sex.
The updated guidance sets out “how NHS organisations should ensure privacy, dignity and safety for all patients in hospital accommodation”, in line with last year’s judgement, and the organisation’s own pledge to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation.
Operational breaches, such as women having to share wards or toilet facilities with men, must now be reported nationally. The NHS also requires providers to ensure that “all patients, relatives and carers who should be aware of the guidance are aware of it”.
In order to maintain hospital accommodation as single-sex, the guidance makes clear that “trans people and others with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment should be accommodated in line with their biological sex”.