Now NHS staff will tell patients what their preferred pronouns are
by Sanchez Manning, Mail on Sunday:
NHS patients are to be told which pronouns their doctors and nurses prefer to be addressed by.
A diversity training module for medics tells them to inform patients of their pronouns – such as he/him, she/her or they/them – to create a ‘safe space’ for transgender and non-binary people, who make up 0.5 per cent of the population.
Critics last night warned the move risks making patients who are not transgender ‘uncomfortable’.
The advice is in a training guide by Health Education England (HEE), the quango responsible for education and training in the NHS.
Critics have raised concern over HEE’s close relationship with LGBT charity Stonewall, which has urged removing the word ‘mother’ from maternity policies as it could discriminate against trans people who were born female but now identify as male.
HEE’s online learning module –entitled ‘LGBTQIA+ Awareness’ – will be completed by staff across the NHS and care sector. It encourages health workers to announce their pronouns to each other at NHS staff meetings.
And it says transgender staff must be allowed to access single-sex facilities of the gender they identify as – regardless of whether they have physically transitioned.
This could see pre-operative transgender women being allowed in female-only spaces in hospitals.
HEE’s guide says: ‘The easiest thing to do is to start by introducing yourself with your own pronoun.
‘In doing so you are creating a safe space for trans, non-binary, intersex and gender non-conforming people who may not feel comfortable to go first in introducing themselves with pronouns.’
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