NHS staff have been asked to still treat colleagues with beards as women if they self-identify as female, it has been reported.
Official guidance from NHS Scotland states employees must use the correct name and pronouns for transgender colleagues.
One training scenario used by the health service asked workers to consider the fictional case of ‘Lucy’, a 29-year-old trans nurse.
The character is said to be yet-to formally change her name from Lee and is ‘still producing visible facial hair’.
The training module explained that some staff have been hesitant to correct patients who are still using male terms to refer to Lucy.
The fictional scenario is understood to have concluded with employees being told that ‘discrimination against Lucy will not be tolerated’.
It adds that under equality law, Lucy’s rights are protected and colleagues must use her correct name and pronouns.
Scottish Tories slammed the training module, which has since been updated, as ‘ludicrous’ and ‘nonsensical’.
NHS staff have been asked to still treat colleagues with beards as women if they self-identify as female (Pictured: Scottish First Minister John Swinney)
Official guidance from NHS Scotland states employees must use the correct name and pronouns for transgender colleagues (file photo)
One training scenario used by the health service asked workers to consider the fictional case of ‘Lucy’, a 29-year-old trans nurse (stock photo)
MSP Stephen Kerr said, according to The Telegraph: ‘It is absolutely nonsensical to demand that staff and patients ignore biological reality and participate in an enforced illusion.
‘This kind of thought control has no place in a rational, professional healthcare setting, where clear communication, trust and biological facts are critical to patient care and workplace cohesion.’
The same NHS Scotland guidance also promotes the rollout of gender-neutral toilets as a way to ‘promote equality’.
It claims the lavatories ‘promote equality by eliminating the need for people to conform to traditional gender norms’.
The content of the training scenarios, which were developed by the NHS Education for Scotland agency (NES), was initially disclosed by The Times newspaper.
However, after being approached for comment, the NES removed the scenario on gender neutral bathrooms and the claim that staff had a ‘legal obligation’ to use Lucy’s correct pronouns.
It comes as First Minister John Swinney recently confirmed he backed transgender employees being able to use the toilets they feel most comfortable with.
This led to claims he remains ‘wedded to Nicola Sturgeon’s reckless gender self-ID policy’.
A Scottish Government equality and inclusion policy states that ‘trans staff should choose to use the facilities they feel most comfortable with, including using accessible toilets if they prefer’.
Asked if he supports the policy, without any requirement to have changed their legal gender, Mr Swinney said: ‘Of course I support the guidance that’s available.
NHS Fife nurse Sandie Peggie took on NHS Fife over trans doctor Beth Upton’s use of a female changing area
Dr Beth Upton leaving the tribunal in Dundee, Scotland, in February
‘But it’s underpinned also by the need to ensure that any such question does not come at the disadvantage of other members of staff.
‘And that’s a crucial obligation, which is in law, which the Government as an employer has got to make sure is provided for within our estate in these circumstances.’
On whether he believes trans women are women, he said: ‘The answer I’ve given to that before is that I accept that to be the case.’
The row comes in the wake of a high-profile employment tribunal in Scotland about the right of trans people to access female-only areas.
NHS Fife nurse Sandie Peggie sued the health board after alleging that it breached the Equality Act 2010 by allowing transgender doctor Beth Upton to use a female changing area.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) wrote to NHS Fife remind them of ‘obligations’ around single-sex spaces in the Equality Act, including their duty to ‘assess and review proposed new and revised policies or practices’.
Concerns have been raised that NHS Fife may have broken the law by failing to carry out an impact assessment of its policy.
Mr Swinney said questions about whether transgender employees access female-only spaces are ‘carefully calibrated by the requirements of legislation’.
He said: ‘The law has to be followed, and the law is quite clear that there must be single-sex spaces available within our estate, so that’s what the law says and requires of us and that has to be the case.
‘There are of course arrangements in the Equality Act which address the issues which have to be taken into account by any employer in dealing with any desire by a trans person to use those single-sex spaces, and exemptions that can be deployed if the employer goes through the necessary process of considering the implications of that fact for other members of staff.
‘The rule of law is the crucial point here and all organisations must act consistently with the law, and that is what I would expect to be the case in all circumstances.’
A spokesman for NES said: ‘The Times article is incorrect. We are not telling staff what to do or say.
‘This is simply a document to help staff think about and discuss a range of equality topics in the workplace.’
In a previous statement to The Times, NES said: ‘We routinely review and update our educational resources in light of guidance and policy changes. In the light of a recent statement by the EHRC, we have reviewed some of these resources including the cultural humility resource.’
MailOnline has contacted NHS Scotland for comment.
