Transgender women are to be banned from female NHS wards, as health secretary Steve Barclay insisted that the Tories “know what a woman is”.
The health secretary promised in his conference speech to restore “common sense” to the health service and recognise “the importance of biological sex in healthcare”.
He said women’s rights have been sidelined and announced changes that will see men and women given the right to receive care on single-sex wards.
But there is no evidence of complaints about trans people in the NHS. And an investigation by the TransLucent website, which submitted freedom of information requests to 102 NHS Foundation Trusts, found no women had complained about sharing a ward with a trans woman.
And Britain’s first openly transgender MP, Conservative Jamie Wallis, lashed out at the health secretary, urging him to solve problems “which actually exist”. The backbencher said there was “no evidence of even a single complaint about the presence of trans women in particular spaces,” adding “whilst Mr Barclay is solving a problem, with our continued support and encouragement I hope to see him solve ones which actually exist”.
The move also prompted anger from the LGBT+ charity Stonewall, which described the announcement as a “cynical attempt” by Mr Barclay to distract from work on women’s healthcare. Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said: “Any proposed changes to the NHS constitution should have improving inclusivity at the heart of what they do and be subject to wide conversations and consultation.”
And the Unison union said Mr Barclay’s speech was “deflection politics at its very worst”, and “patients and their families will see straight through this nonsense”.
Labour declined to comment on the proposals. But backbench MP and former minister Ben Bradshaw said “attacking trans people is all Tory ministers have left to distract from their utter failure on the NHS”.
He told The Independent: “There is no evidence of trans patients causing problems in hospital, although there have been problems with trans women being abused on men’s wards & cis women being abused by male staff.”
To applause from Tory members in the conference hall in Manchester, Mr Barclay said that “as Conservatives, we know what a woman is”.
He went on: “That is why I ordered a reversal of unacceptable changes to the NHS website that erased references to women for conditions such as cervical cancer, and stopped the NHS ordering staff to declare pronouns to each new patient.
“And that is why today I am going further by announcing that we will change the NHS constitution following a consultation later this year to make sure we respect the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients and recognise the importance of different biological needs and protect the rights of women.”
Mr Barclay said if that seems like “simple common sense, that is because it is”.
But Tory MP Elliot Colburn slammed the plans, which he said were potentially illegal and raised serious questions. “Does it mean trans men are going to have to be in female wards? Would they feel comfortable with that?” he said.
Mr Colburn told The Independent the government was “trying to shoehorn in anything about LGBT+ people for the sake of it”, and he had not seen any evidence of problems with trans women in the NHS.
“But apart from anything else, it is politically unwise if not uncomfortable for a number of other reasons,” he said.
The Carshalton and Wallington MP cited polls consistently showing concerns about trans people “do not feature as an election issue for the British public”.
He also said the tone of announcements about trans people could almost be “copy and pasted from the 70s and 80s about gay and lesbian people,” including about being a “threat to women and children”.
“There is an element of danger and a risk we make them all guilty by association,” he added.
Mr Colburn said: “Nobody is saying there are not legitimate conversations that need to happen. The problem I am having is it comes do to the suggestion there is an inherent danger, so we are airing on the side of that and banning this and banning that.”
Also hitting out at the announcement, a Stonewall spokesperson said women “regularly report dissatisfaction with the healthcare they receive in England”.
The charity cited underfunding on female-specific health issues and women “not having their symptoms taken seriously”.
They said: “This is a cynical attempt by the Secretary of State to ‘look busy’ instead of getting on with the graft of implementing the Women’s Health Strategy, and, besides being unworkable, all it will achieve is to restrict access to healthcare for trans women, by making it humiliating and dangerous.”
Unison head of health Sara Gorton said the NHS is facing “countless challenges, all of which are of great public concern”.
She cited “endlessly growing waiting lists, lengthening ambulance delays, worsening industrial relations and a hopelessly adrift social care system”.
Ms Gorton added: “This is what should be keeping the health secretary awake at night. These are the problems the government could and should be acting on. Not trying to bar trans women from female-only wards.
“Patients and their families will see straight through this nonsense. They know what the government should be doing. That’s tackling waits and delays, ending the strikes and dealing with the crisis in social care.”
The British Medical Association (BMA) said the plans were not “common sense”, but a “distraction from serious NHS problems” which could “incite discrimination and harassment of transgender and non-binary patients”.
BMA council chair professor Phil Banfield said: “All patients deserve dignity and access to healthcare, which includes having their identity respected.
“It’s beyond belief that on day two of the biggest industrial action the NHS has ever seen, the Health Secretary has chosen to make a call that would require Trusts to follow guidance which is in breach of the Equality Act – this will amount to nothing except more hurt and harm to trans patients.
“Hospital Trusts should not follow unlawful guidance, and this is another, frustrating, example of the Government’s refusal to listen to and value the views and opinions of those who work within the NHS.”
And trans charity Mermaids said trans women are women and have accessed single-sex spaces, including female hospital wards, for years without issue.
“There is no evidence to suggest this should change now,” a spokesman said.
They added: “Once again, the trans community is being scapegoated for systemic issues within a healthcare system which has for years been failing to provide equal access to high quality care for all women; whether it’s black women being 5 times more likely to die in childbirth, punitive policies for queer women accessing IVF, or trans women taking their own lives while waiting years to access gender affirming care.”
The Tories said patients and staff have raised concerns about “biological men” being allowed onto women’s hospital wards.
Mr Barclay also confirmed sex-specific language had been restored to online health advice pages about cervical and ovarian cancer and the menopause.
It followed outrage from Tory MPs about the removal of the word “women” from some of the NHS’s online guidance.
Home secretary Suella Braverman also said trans women “have no place in women’s wards” in hospitals.
She told broadcasters: “Trans women have no place in women’s wards or indeed any safe space relating to biological women.
“And the health secretary is absolutely right to clarify and make it clear that biological men should not have treatments in the same wards and in the same safe spaces as biological women. This is about protecting women’s dignity, and women’s safety and women’s privacy.”
