Sajid Javid orders review into controversial trans ward guidance
Sajid Javid orders review into controversial guidance that could see male-born sex offenders who identify as women on female-only NHS wards
- Some hospital trusts say criminal history should be part of a risk assessment
- However, they do not say criminal history should prevent patients’ admission
- Some trusts have called those who are uncomfortable with the idea transphobic
Sajid Javid last night ordered a review into guidance that could see male-born sex offenders who identify as women allowed on female-only NHS wards.
Hospital trusts in Devon, Oxford and Nottinghamshire tell staff criminal history should be part of a risk assessment when placing trans women on female-only wards.
But they do not say a criminal history should prevent the patients from being admitted and NHS trusts advise that patients should be admitted based on the gender with which they identify.
Sajid Javid (pictured last week) last night ordered a review into guidance that could see male-born sex offenders who identify as women allowed on female-only NHS wards
Some trusts have called those who are uncomfortable with the idea transphobic, likened them to racists in official guidelines and asked staff to report them to the police for hate crimes.
Health Secretary Mr Javid, said last night that all patients should feel safe in hospital and it was right for advice to be reviewed.
He added on Twitter: ‘It’s not wrong to look at whether guidance is right, or how it’s being applied, to reassure everyone. I’ve asked the Department of Health and Social Care for fresh advice.’
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust said the ‘risk of sexual offending in a trans context is very rare’ and that if there is ‘significant risk’ staff would ‘apply the same robust mitigation that we would to a non-trans patient’.
Dr Jane Hamlin, president of the Beaumont Society, a trans support group, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘If anyone starts off with an assumption that a trans person is a sex offender – or even a potential sex offender – that is discrimination and transphobia.
‘All patients, including trans people, should feel safe when in hospital.’
Medical staff warned that the guidance could be a breach of their code of conduct and leave the most vulnerable at risk.
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