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NHS bars trans women from female wards and changing rooms in landmark guidance reversal

An NHS hospital ward, as England's health service has issued binding guidance requiring trusts to allocate ward places by biological sex and bar trans women from female staff changing rooms and showers.
An NHS hospital ward, as England's health service has issued binding guidance requiring trusts to allocate ward places by biological sex and bar trans women from female staff changing rooms and showers.

NHS England has instructed hospitals to assign wards according to biological sex, ending a seven-year policy that had allowed trans women to be placed in female wards. The new guidance — published eighteen months after the Supreme Court ruled that 'woman' means biological sex under the Equality Act — covers patient wards, toilets, bathrooms and staff changing rooms. Where placing a trans patient in a ward matching their biological sex is clinically unsuitable, hospitals must offer alternatives such as single-bed bays. Women's rights groups have welcomed the shift but warned that trusts with ideologically motivated staff could still drag their feet on compliance.

The 2019 NHS guidance it replaces explicitly said that having male genitalia was 'not a bar' to being placed on female wards, toilets and showers.

Trans rights groups say the change will 'push trans people away from accessing care' and amounts to wholesale exclusion from NHS services.

Under the new rules, NHS trusts must audit their facilities and report compliance to chief executives and boards.

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