Hospital bans sex assault victim from op after all-female care request

EXCLUSIVE: Hospital refuses to operate on sex attack victim after she requests all-female care because she fears mixed sex facilities are unsafe for women

• The patient – a sex assault victim – had requested all-female facilities over concerns over mixed areas
• She was stunned when someone she believed to be transgender male opened door during pre-op assessment
• It prompted her to complain and urgent extra request for all-female nursing care at Princess Grace Hospital
• The hospital then cancelled operation claiming it was  ‘protecting staff from discrimination and harassment’
• Women’s rights campaigners have savaged the hospital’s act, branding it ‘a movement of misogyny in heels’
• Hospital said requests for ‘single sex care’ were particularly challenging, citing the ‘diversity of colleagues’ 

A hospital banned a sex assault victim from having an operation after she asked for all-female nursing care because of safety concerns over mixed facilities. 

The patient – a feminist retired lawyer MailOnline is calling Emma – was told by London’s Princess Grace Hospital it had to ‘protect staff from unacceptable distress’.

The patient- who MailOnline is calling Emma – had op axed

She had been due to have complex colorectal surgery at the Marylebone premises on October 10 and had filled in a pre-admission form detailing her requirements.

Emma, who lives in north London, asked for single sex accommodation and – as per her beliefs – did not wish to ‘use pronouns or engage with such manifestations of gender ideology’.

She told MailOnline ‘I was not going to agree to fill in reams of hospital paperwork about my non-existent ‘gender identity’ or give my pronouns to anyone.’

The hospital is one of only a handful to use the Da Vinci robot, which can perform delicate and complex operations, and was selected for that reason.

But when she arrived on October 6 for her clinical pre-op assessment, which involved intimate procedures, what appeared to be a transgender man in blonde wig and make-up opened the door and made eye contact with her.

The encounter – which is now being investigated by the hospital and its parent firm HCA – prompted her to complain and to make an urgent extra request – for all-female nursing care.

Emma told MailOnline: ‘I began to wonder if it was just a coincidence that this member of staff with a ‘gender identity’ had made their presence felt to me in such an inappropriate way during my first visit.

‘I began to suspect that I had been targeted because my patient records showed that I refused to use pronouns and wanted single sex facilities, although I have no evidence of this.

Emma was told by London’s Princess Grace Hospital it had to ‘protect staff from discrimination and harassment’ in message

The hospital is one of only a handful to use the Da Vinci robot, which can perform delicate and complex operations, and was selected for that reason.

‘Then I began to panic that men would be attending to my intimate care at the hospital while I was immobilised for an entire week following major surgery. It was a slow, dawning realisation. I felt sick. Alarm bells were ringing in my head. I cannot describe the fear that I felt. I cannot rationalise it.

She wrote to HCA that evening underlining her concerns and her beliefs relating to gender and women’s rights. 

Emma cited the landmark case involving Maya Forstater, which said gender critical beliefs were protected under the Equality Act and ‘worthy of respect’.

The email told them that she believed that self-ID by men onto women’s hospital wards had resulted in attacks on patients. For this reason, she said that ‘it is a fact that mixed sex hospital facilities are unsafe for women.’

She added: ‘I do feel that the hospital should follow a protocol of offering ALL women patients single-sex nursing care.

‘Please do not make life difficult for women when they are at their most vulnerable by forcing them into uncomfortable and embarrassing situations. I cannot believe that I am the first patient to have raised this with you.’

Emma’s email of complaint sent to the hospital after the encounter during the pre-assessment session before her operation

An email from Prince Grace Hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Maxine Estop Green told her that the operation was off

When toilets can be legally limited to men and women under human rights law

The guidance says that toilets can be legally limited to men and women with separate gender-neutral facilities as long as trans people are taken into account.

This is explained through two examples. 

One is a small cafe with limited space and facilities for public use which has separate lockable, self-contained male and female toilets with hand basins in single units. 

The EHRC says that to ensure they are fully inclusive, and to make the most effective use of the available facilities, the cafe could decide to make them all gender neutral.

A second example is a community centre which has separate male and female toilets. The centre could conduct a survey in which some service users say that they would not use the centre if the toilets were open to members of the opposite biological sex, for reasons of privacy and dignity or because of their religious belief. 

It decides to introduce an additional gender-neutral toilet, and puts up signs telling all users that they may use either the toilet for their biological sex or to use the gender neutral toilet.

She was stunned then to receive an email from the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Maxine Estop Green telling her the operation was off.

She told her the hospital ‘did not share her beliefs’ and she should make alternative arrangements for her surgery.

The message added the hospital was committed to protecting staff from what it described as ‘unacceptable distress’

Emma urged them to reconsider, adding in a further message she thought they had misunderstood her requests, which she said were entirely within the law.

The hospital said it would offer a private room but would NOT facilitate her requests for single-sex care after her operation.

It also mentioned her comment about pronouns and said it had a responsibility to protect staff from ‘discrimination and harassment’.

Emma said: ‘I am still in a state of shock at this punitive and discriminatory reaction by the CEO of this hospital which specialises in women’s procedures. I would not have predicted this in a million years.

‘Everything that has happened is so off the wall and irrational, that it makes me believe that I have been targeted by trans activists within the hospital.

‘As always, this is about appeasing men who claim a gender identity. They will punish anyone who tells the truth. I will not be forced to use the language of gender ideology, that is, pronouns that don’t apply to me. Women’s safety, dignity and privacy continues to be sacrificed on the altar of this quasi religion.

‘I cannot believe this is happening in the UK.’

The decision by the hospital comes amid an ongoing debate over women’s rights and the need for female-only spaces, such as hospital wards.

There are also fears predatory sex offenders could pose as trans women to gain access to female loos and facilities.

It also after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said service providers wishing to limit services to a single sex are legally able to do so, provided the reasons are justified and proportionate.

The ruling means it is legal for a gym to limit communal changing rooms to a single sex, as long as a gender neutral changing room is also provided for trans people. 

Rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, who founded Standing For Women, called the hospital’s stance ‘misogyny in heels’.

She added: ‘Once we are in a society whereby women are compelled to pretend men can be women, and everything must flow from such orthodoxy, there is no end to the consequences.

‘Those are hardest to bear are around issues of safeguarding for women and children. Prioritising a man’s feelings over a woman’s health is just another example, in this case particularly egregious, of how powerful this ideology really is.

‘It’s staggering how fearful organisations are in doing what’s right rather than what this movement of misogyny in heels demands. We hope this patient gets the treatment, and apology, she needs.’

 A spokesperson for HCA said: ‘At The Princess Grace Hospital we always strive to deliver the highest standards of care and we value and respect each of our patients as individuals. For reasons of confidentiality, we cannot comment on individual patient complaints.

‘The Hospital’s policy is always to accommodate patient requests if possible. Some, such as a request for “single sex care”, are particularly challenging, given the diversity of our colleagues and our need to prioritise patient safety.

‘Regrettably, in some circumstances, it might be necessary to cancel a procedure if there is insufficient time to discuss such a request ahead of the patient’s admission.’

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