The ongoing legal dispute between nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital and the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust appears to have taken a latest turn, following an official visit from NHS England and an intervention from the Health Secretary.
The nurses, who’re being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, took issue with being required to undress in front of a person who identifies as female. The nurses were told they needed to be more inclusive and say they even received a proposal from their transgender colleague, “Rose”, to “educate” them about their attitudes.
A recent Supreme Court ruling determined that using public facilities, like changing rooms, must be based on biological sex, fairly than subjective feelings. Despite this, the feminine nurses have had their changing facilities moved to a “temporary” location.
The temporary location has been in use for nearly a 12 months, doesn’t have a lock and opens onto a public corridor. What was the feminine changing rooms are utilized by Rose.
A senior member of NHS England, after an unannounced visit to the hospital, described the feminine changing facilities as “inadequate” and said that swift motion can be taken to supply male, female and gender-neutral changing rooms.
Shortly before last 12 months’s general election, Wes Streeting, now the Health Secretary, indicated that he was in support of the nurses. Streeting has been criticised for apparently doing little of substance to support the nurses, but following the Supreme Court ruling, he did reiterate his support: “I would like to be certain that the NHS is upholding the sex based rights of girls who work for the NHS in addition to women who use the NHS…I don’t desire to see a situation where NHS staff are having to pull their employers through courts and tribunals to uphold their rights.”
One of the nurses, Bethany Hutchison, who also leads the union formed by the group, said, “We hugely appreciate the motion initiated by Mr Streeting, NHS England and the RCN who’ve promised a way forward to revive our safety and dignity within the workplace in keeping with the law.“We should never have needed to take this motion, but such has been the capture of the NHS by Stonewall on these issues that we faced no alternative.”
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “The motion Wes Streeting takes on this matter could well be a defining moment of his profession. If he does the precise thing it should mark him out as a daring politician who follows through on his guarantees with the courage of his convictions.”
Reports suggest other government organisations, particularly the civil service are refusing to just accept the Supreme court ruling and are still permitting people to make use of the facilities based on their personal preferences fairly than biological reality.
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