A question on sex wards in Dorset Hospitals

A Female resident has asked a question about single sex spaces at the University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust University Hospitals Dorset Annual Members' Meeting 2023

Her question is summarised incoherently and the response is even worse. Why can’t we get straight answers?

Please see for yourself at 45:00

https://youtu.be/49rOwMfpa9g?si=wRIQ5Zj1DhKena0g&t=2698



Here is the question which was submitted to the meeting in full:

Dear Rob Whiteman, Chair of UHD Trust


In light of the recent comments from Rishi Sunak and Steve Barclay telling NHS Trusts to protect women's access to female only hospital wards (please see linked articles):-


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12406919/Rishi-Sunak-tells-NHS-trusts-protect-womens-privacy-guidance-revealed-

says-patients-temporarily-identify-women-share-female-hospital-wards.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12402885/Trans-group-Stonewall-helps-write-gender-policies-30-NHS-trusts-prompting:

fury.html

Can the Chairman confirm that the Trust will be taking the appropriate action and revisiting the following Dorset NHS Trust policy documents to:- a) remove the right for any man to self-id into women's single sex hospital wards and b) remove the clear influence of Stonewall throughout these policies.:-

  • Same Sex Accommodation Policy dated 2021
  • Privacy and Dignity policy 2021
  • Transgender Guidelines 2021 / 2019

Some high-level areas of concern are:-

  • the UK government banned mixed sex wards in 2010
  • the Dorset NHS Trust policies represent the law as Stonewall would like it to be, and not how it actually is.
  • the terms 'gender' and 'sex' are deliberately conflated throughout these 3 policy documents. (clear language is imperative in any policy/legal document - sex and gender are not the same thing and "gender" is not a protected characteristic in the Equality Act)
  • the Equality Impact Assessments contained within the policies are discriminatory (they do not carefully consider the impact on all the Protected Characteristics within the Equality Act) and therefore in my opinion are unlawful.

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