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Nurses from Darlington have launched legal action against hospital bosses
A hospital worker says she went into “panic mode” as she claimed a trans colleague prolonged their time in a changing room and “stared” at her, a tribunal has heard.
Carly Hoy is among eight staff challenging an “inclusive” policy which allowed a female-only changing room at Darlington Memorial Hospital to be used by a biological male who identifies as a woman.
At a hearing in Newcastle, healthcare assistant Ms Hoy claimed Rose Henderson had stared and “stood there while waiting for me to get changed”, causing her to feel a “mixture of emotions”.
Lawyers for the Durham and Darlington NHS Trust said that account was “not correct”.
Ms Hoy, who had been in her role since 2021, said she sometimes saw Rose in the main changing room, but “didn’t realise it was a male until he said his name”.
She said she would often go into the changing room with her face “buried in my phone” but recalled Rose would often walk “up and down” for no reason in either “scrubs or black holey boxer shorts”.
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The nurses work at Darlington Memorial Hospital’s Day Surgery Unit
The tribunal heard Ms Hoy had “accidentally made eye contact” on one occasion with Rose and after that, Ms Hoy would sometimes change in the toilets instead, despite it not being “very hygienic”.
“He was just stood there looking… he just stood there waiting for me to get changed,” she said.
When asked if she thought it was threatening to specifically see Rose walking up and down the changing room, she said “yes, it’s scary… it’s fear”, adding it sent her into “panic mode”.
However, the trust’s lawyer Simon Cheetham KC, said that Ms Hoy’s claims that Rose would walk up and down the changing room for no reason and stare at her were “not correct”.
He said Ms Hoy did not know how often she had seen Rose in the changing room, while she could not recall the detail of what Rose was wearing.
Ms Hoy said: “I am an anxious person, self-conscious about how I look, I would not put myself through this stress if I was lying.”
Letter of concern
The tribunal heard from another nurse, Jane Peveller, who has been working at the hospital since 1997 and said she was uncomfortable with Rose being in the changing rooms.
She is among 26 hospital workers who signed a “letter of concern” about Rose’s behaviour, which included allegations Rose was stopping hormone treatment to conceive with their partner.
Describing when she was in the changing room with Rose, on a separate occasion, Ms Peveller said she felt “overwhelmed with anxiety that a man was stood next to me”.
When asked by Mr Cheetham if it was the presence of someone she considered to look “very male” rather than anything in particular they did, she replied “yes”.
Ms Peveller said, before signing the letter she had overheard “rumours” from a colleague Rose had stopped taking female hormones and was trying to “inseminate” their female partner.
Mr Cheetham asked if Ms Peveller had verified this rumour before signing it, and she denied doing so.
He asked why it “did not trouble” her that she was putting her name to a letter “unequivocally”, without checking whether the rumour was true.
She maintained it was “because it was correct” and said Rose was a “sexually active biological man [who was] stood next to me while I had my trousers down”.
‘Harassment related to sex’
A third nurse Annice Grundy, who has worked for the trust since 2021, signed the same letter.
She said she had seen Rose in the changing room “two or three times” and would decide to stay in the toilet area until Rose had left.
Mrs Grundy was asked by the trust’s lawyer whether she had also verified rumours that Rose had stopped hormone treatment, but said she did not because she “did not know Rose personally” and had “never spoken to her”.
After the concerns were raised, the trust provided a temporary changing place for the nurses to use, a previous hearing revealed.
Referencing the details of her complaint, the trust’s lawyer suggested by doing the above the trust had “wanted to do something” and asked why Mrs Grundy described the issue as “harassment related to sex”.
She replied saying that she felt the group of women had been taken out of a changing room where they “should feel comfortable” and “by taking us out of that because there’s a biological man using it, I feel that’s harassment”.
The nurses have filed claims on the grounds of sexual harassment, discrimination, victimisation and breaches of the right to a private life, under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
They are being supported in their claim by lawyers at the Christian Legal Centre.
The tribunal continues.