NHS England issues guidance on trans patients and single-sex wards

NHS England has issued guidance directing hospitals to accommodate trans patients on single-sex wards according to biological sex, while making clinical needs the priority when they conflict with that placement rule. The guidance also says patients’ privacy, dignity and safety must be protected, and calls for alternatives where needed. The patient guidance says trans people should generally be cared for on wards or bays corresponding to their biological sex rather than their gender identity. If that arrangement is not clinically appropriate, hospitals should consider alternatives. Where clinical needs and the same-sex accommodation requirement cannot both be met, clinical needs take priority, according to the guidance. The guidance describes placement on a ward aligned with a patient’s gender identity as likely to be rare, and says reasons should be recorded and reported nationally as breaches. It also says patients should be treated with respect, dignity, compassion and care. The rules apply to acute, mental-health and community NHS trusts and NHS-funded patients in private settings, but exclude accident and emergency departments, urgent treatment centres and paediatrics.