NHS finally bars trans women from female wards and changing rooms, 18 months AFTER Supreme Court ruling
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 confirmed that hospitals must now assign trans patients to single-sex wards on the basis of biological sex, not gender identity — a complete reversal of 2019 guidance that critics argued left women exposed to the risk of sexual assault. The new rules apply to wards, toilets, bathrooms and changing rooms for both patients and staff, and require NHS trust chief executives to sign off on compliance.
Previous guidance explicitly stated that having male genitalia was 'not a bar' to placement on a female ward.
NHS trusts must now audit their facilities and record as 'breaches' any instances where trans patients are housed according to gender identity rather than biological sex.
Under the old rules, female nurses had lodged complaints about being expected to share changing facilities with transgender colleagues.
