NHS nurses in trans changing room row say they’ve been ‘made to feel like bigots’

Two of the nurses suing an NHS trust over a trans colleague’s use of women’s changing rooms have spoken to Fox News about their call for a change in policy. 

Six nurses are reported to be taking legal action at an employment tribunal, basing their claim on alleged sexual harassment and sexual discrimination. 

Their legal action focuses on the trust’s changing-room policies, which permit any member of staff identifying as the opposite gender to access single-sex changing rooms, toilets or showers. 

Speaking to Fox News, Lisa Lockey claimed the nurses’ concerns have been “ignored… for a long time”.

‘There’s nothing in place to protect women’

Their complaints have been “swept aside” in what she claimed was the hope “we were going to just forget about it and shut up”. 

Lockey went on to say: “To go public was to try [to] gain some attention from the government, to try [to] look at the policies around this because there’s nothing in place at the minute to protect women. It’s literally a self-ID situation where any person can say they ID as a woman and go in.” 

Fellow nurse Bethany Hutchison added: “We want the policy changed [to ensure] safety for women.”

Lockey went on: “We’ve been made to feel like we’re bigots, transphobes and bullies… all we want to do is defend our right to a female-only space.

“We don’t want to attack trans people. We know there [are] a lot of good trans people out there [who] wouldn’t harm anybody, but we can’t tell the difference [between] who’s good and who’s bad.” 

Conservative government proposals called for trans women to be banned from single-sex female NHS wards, a policy which has the backing of Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Under the revised NHS Charter, transgender in-patients could be provided with single rooms “where appropriate”, with patients having the right to request a person of the same biological sex deliver any intimate care.

The proposal, first put forward by then health secretary Steve Barclay in October 2023, also aimed to reinstate “sex-specific” language throughout the health service, when referring to treatments for, and advice on, menopause and cervical and ovarian cancer.

However, a discrimination lawyer has claimed any plans to bar trans women from female hospital wards was not only “unlawful” but “impractical”.