The NHS is to declare that sex is a matter of biology in a landmark shift against gender ideology. The Telegraph has more.
Changes to the health service’s written constitution proposed by Ministers will for the first time ban trans women from women-only wards, and give women the right to request a female doctor for intimate care.
The NHS constitution, a document that aims to set out the principles and values of the health service and legal rights for patients and staff, was last updated in 2015. It has to be updated at least every 10 years by the Secretary of State.
Campaigners for women’s rights welcomed the significant shift, which comes after years of wrangling and follows accusations that the health service had been captured by ‘gender ideology’.
In 2021, NHS guidance said trans patients could be placed in single-sex wards based on the gender with which they identified.
The new constitution will state: “We are defining sex as biological sex.”
The clarification means that the right to a single-sex ward means patients would “not have to share sleeping accommodation with patients of the opposite biological sex”.
Until now, no commitment was made to biological sex, meaning some female patients complained that they were forced to share sleeping space with trans women – those who are
bornmale but identify as female.Women’s rights campaigners said the move was a “return to common sense and an overdue recognition that women’s wellbeing and safety matter.”
However, NHS leaders raised concerns that the health service was being “dragged into a pre-election culture wars debate”.
The changes to the constitution are a further indication of a change in attitudes after the Cass review into the NHS’s gender identity services found evidence that allowing children to change gender was built on weak foundations.
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