Emergency operators have been warned to ask callers how they want to be referred to rather than ‘misgendering’ them based on their voices. The Mail has more.
NHS 999 operators have been told to ask callers their preferred pronouns to avoid misgendering them based on the sound of their voices.
Call-centre staff should also not use ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’, with one ambulance trust stating preferred pronouns should be sought even in emergencies so the experience is less stressful for trans patients.
Others say birth sex is often irrelevant to care, so operators can use patients’ self-identified gender.
The policies can be revealed today in the second part of an investigation into the spread of contested gender ideology in the NHS.
As the Daily Mail reported last week, hospital trusts are letting patients who only occasionally identify as women into female-only wards. Maternity staff also refer to ‘birthing people’ rather than women and mothers.
Lottie Moore, from the Policy Exchange think-tank, said: “To expect anyone to be thinking of preferred pronouns in a 999 health emergency is ludicrous.”
The MoS asked England’s nine NHS ambulance trusts if they had specific guidelines for handling calls from transgender people.
North East Ambulance Service provided a staff document on ‘How to best support our gender-diverse patients’. It advises a patient’s sex “has no bearing on someone who has toothache, for example” so the gender they identify as can be used.
