Judgement due after nurses challenge NHS trust for allowing trans woman to use female changing room

A brief look at the arguments about changing room at Darlington hospitalpublished at 10:17 GMT

10:17 GMT

Alison Holt
Social affairs editor

As we await the judgement, let’s hear a bit more about the background to this case.

The nurses objected to an operating theatre practitioner, who was born male but identifies as a woman, using the changing room designated for female staff at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Rose Henderson, who was referred to by first name during the tribunal, had been using the facility since 2019 before the nurses complained in August 2023.

The tribunal heard that 26 nurses later wrote a letter complaining of Rose’s use of and conduct within the changing room, including allegations of staring at women getting changed. Rose denied the allegations.

At the tribunal the nurses’ barrister argued the NHS Trust had “shunned and ignored” their complaints about the “harmful effects” of a policy which allowed people to access single-sex spaces “based on self-declared gender identity alone” without consultation with other staff.

The barrister for the trust said the nurses had “demonised” Rose and that staff were only given access to single-sex spaces if they had “declared they were living their life fully in that gender”.