NHS bosses ‘ought to admit defeat’ in trans battle with nurse | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Hospital managers have been urged to confess defeat of their authorized battle in opposition to a nurse who complained about sharing a altering room with a transgender medic. Veteran nurse Sandie Peggie is taking NHS Fife to an industrial tribunal after she was suspended for saying she shouldn’t be compelled to share a altering room with transgender medic Dr Beth Upton at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife.

The NHS board mentioned it might “carefully consider” the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that the phrases “woman” and “sex” within the Equality Act 2010 seek advice from a organic girl and organic intercourse. But native MSP Murdo Fraser mentioned: “How can NHS Fife possibly continue to waste public funds defending the Sandie Peggie case when their defeat is inevitable?”

He mentioned: “They basically don’t have a leg to stand on now.

“The judgement from the Supreme Court is a comprehensive, detailed and authoritative unanimous judgement from the country’s highest court which settles the law on the definition of a woman.”

The same case has additionally been introduced by a bunch of Darlington nurses, who’re taking County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust to court docket saying they had been anticipated to share a altering room with a transgender colleague.

In a written ruling, the judges highlighted “changing rooms, hostels and medical services” as examples of single-sex providers that required “a biological interpretation of ‘sex’”.

Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch mentioned: “In East Fife, Sandie Peggie was suspended after she complained about a male doctor who identifies as a woman sharing the same communal changing room.

“A few weeks ago, I met the Darlington nurses forced to bring legal action after a male nurse started using their changing room. These nurses’ careers are threatened, but the man has the support of the ill-advised hospital managers, who misunderstand the law.”

A spokesperson for NHS Fife mentioned: “NHS Fife notes the clarity provided by today’s Supreme Court ruling regarding the legal definition of a woman. We will now take time to carefully consider the judgment and its implications.”

The problem of whether or not trans-women ought to be handled as ladies in all respects has been a minefield for Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer, who claimed in 2023 that “for 99.9% of women, it is completely biological . . . and of course they haven’t got a penis.”

Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield resigned the get together whip final yr partly on account of what she noticed as lack of help from the chief over her help for ladies’s rights. She had mentioned that “only women have a cervix” however requested if he agreed, Sir Keir mentioned in 2021: “Well, it is something that shouldn’t be said. It is not right.”

However a Labour supply claimed final evening that Sir Keir has “hauled the Labour party back to the common sense position” on the difficulty.