The National Health Service is struggling under increasing patient demand to provide quick appointments, A&E support or hospital beds – yet its managers have still found the time to issue a memo to staff struggling to cope with, er, the Supreme Court’s trans ruling. As if its staff didn’t have more pressing problems to deal with…
As reported by Guido Fawkes, the NHS letter sent out by the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust first bemoans the judgment from the highest court in the land before announcing a string ‘extraordinary sessions’ for their 25,000-strong workforce. The one hour-long drop-ins will provide staff with help on how to power through with work in the face of both the ruling and the Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance that has followed it. The note fumes:
It was not the role of the UKSC to define what is, or what it means to be a ‘woman’. Trans persons are still protected from all forms of unlawful discrimination under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. Transphobia is still unlawful.
We understand that competing rights exist and it is important that these are balanced. [University Hospitals Birmingham] is committed to fostering a safe and inclusive environment where everyone can thrive and bring their whole selves to work. We recognise all protected characteristics and it is essential that we acknowledge and celebrate our differences. That is our ethical and moral obligation to each other. We acknowledge that this has been a difficult time for many colleagues and would like to take the opportunity to remind you of the support available to you.
We acknowledge that this has been a difficult time for many colleagues and would like to take the opportunity to remind you of the support available to you. The UHBeProud Staff Network has arranged a series of extraordinary sessions to support colleagues across the organisation.
Good heavens. It seems the NHS has taken a leaf out of the Beeb’s book, after the corporation issues an emotional support notice for colleagues affected by events across the water after the election of Donald Trump. The statement, issued by the BBC Pride Board, sympathised with staff members ‘particularly those in the LGBTQ+ community’ who may have ‘concerns’ about goings-on stateside – and offered ‘confidential assistance’ to those who may need it. And before that it was the Guardian offering its US reporters Trump therapy – with editor Katharine Viner urging her journalists in the wake of the presidential election result: ‘If you’re not in the US, do contact your American colleagues to offer your support… It’s upsetting for many others, too.’ Talk about an overreaction, eh?
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