{"id":634420,"date":"2026-10-18T15:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/634420\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T15:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:20:10","slug":"new-nhs-england-policy-for-trans-people-could-have-a-number-of-adverse-impacts-report-finds-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/634420\/","title":{"rendered":"New NHS England policy for trans people could have \u2018a number of adverse impacts\u2019, report finds | NHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trans people could face delays and a greater risk of \u201ccorridor care\u201d under new NHS England<\/a> guidance that means they will no longer be able to use same-sex wards, according to an internal report.<\/p>\n

An NHS<\/a> England impact assessment, seen by the Guardian, stated that trans people may also potentially experience discrimination and this could lead to them \u201cavoiding accessing healthcare at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

The document considered the impact of new NHS guidance on single-sex spaces across all protected characteristics, including age, disability and sex. It said the policy\u2019s focus on \u201cprivacy, dignity and safety for men and women\u201d would have a positive impact, as would the legal accuracy in guidance on single-sex spaces.<\/p>\n

It also highlighted benefits for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, people with certain religious beliefs and minority-ethnic groups.<\/p>\n

But it said there were a \u201cnumber of potential adverse impacts for trans people\u201d, adding: \u201cThere may be delays and a greater risk of \u2018corridor care\u2019 for trans people with a negative impact on their physical and mental health and wellbeing if side rooms are not available.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrans people may fear and potentially experience discrimination by being \u2018outed\u2019 as trans through not being accommodated in a ward that aligns with their lived gender or being placed in a side room.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said there was a risk that hospitals would not have the capacity to provide side rooms when needed, \u201cforcing trans people into the potentially distressing situation of being accommodated on wards aligned with their biological sex\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said the new policy might have a \u201cnegative impact on fostering good relations\u201d between cisgender and transgender people, as staff may need to \u201cbalance the needs of one group against the other\u201d and this could create animosity and division.<\/p>\n

It also said some women who did not \u201cpresent in line with general societal expectations\u201d could be subjected to questioning around their sex in order to access single-sex wards.<\/p>\n

NHS England published new guidance<\/a> for trusts on Thursday stating that single-sex wards, toilets and changing rooms should be used by people based on their biological sex, not their gender identity.<\/p>\n

It stated that trans people should be \u201caccommodated in line with their biological sex\u201d while ensuring their clinical needs were met and their \u201cprivacy, dignity and safety are maintained\u201d, along with other patients sharing their accommodation.<\/p>\n

A supreme court ruling in 2025 that stated the terms \u201cwoman\u201d and \u201csex\u201d in the Equality Act referred only to a biological woman and to biological sex<\/a>, and did not include transgender women with gender recognition certificates.<\/p>\n

The updated Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) code of practice for services said they must be used on the basis of biological sex, and acknowledged that \u201ctrans people are likely to be disadvantaged by this, by comparison to people who are not trans\u201d.<\/p>\n

The NHS England impact assessment said negative impacts of the new policy could be mitigated by ensuring clinical need is always prioritised, and it highlighted how the new policy does not apply in A&E or intensive care.<\/p>\n

It said the delivery of same-sex accommodation should not be a reason for patients to receive \u201ccorridor care\u201d, and that decisions on where to place trans people should be made on a \u201ccase-by-case basis\u201d.<\/p>\n

NHS England declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trans people could face delays and a greater risk of \u201ccorridor care\u201d under new NHS England guidance that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-634420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}