A woman is claiming that she could have been killed when her surgery was cancelled because she demanded same-sex care.
According to The Telegraph:
Teresa Steele was informed over email that her operation at the Princess Grace, a private hospital in central London, which specialises in women’s health, had been scrapped as a result of her request that only biological women be involved in her intimate care and later developed an abscess.
The former solicitor made the request after a transgender nurse entered her pre-op examination room uninvited. The hospital originally accused her of discriminating against the nurse but has since apologised for breaching Ms Steele’s privacy and dignity.
The abscess, which she believes may have been caused by the stress of the incident, meant that her re-scheduled operation could not be completed, leaving her in pain for months.
She alleges that she was the victim of discrimination and suffered direct harm because of The Princess Grace’s decision to cancel her operation but has said that she will waive any legal action if the hospital puts in place protections for other patients.
Ms Steele is calling on the HCA, one of the UK’s largest private healthcare companies, that owns The Princess Grace and also provides services to the NHS, to change their policies to ensure that vulnerable patients are given protections based on their sex-based rights.
This includes a guarantee that patients can request care from medics of the same biological sex as them.
Ms Steele, whose surgery was only rescheduled after a public outcry including a petition with thousands of signatures, told the company: “It is not a personal issue for me. Since my experience with HCA, I have been contacted by many women patients who are now too afraid to speak out.
“It is particularly distressing to hear from disabled women, including a young woman who is paralysed and has been forced by a private agency to accept intimate care from men under threat of her care being withdrawn.”
Ms Steele has tried to work with the HCA for the last ten months but has decided to speak out after it refused to commit to a time frame for a review of its policies.
The HCA has worked with the NHS for more than a decade and next year is due to open a £100 million private hospital in partnership with the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
Ms Steele was due to have a complicated abdominal operation at The Princess Grace on Oct 10 last year and, in her admission forms, she said she required single-sex lavatories and bathrooms and would not discuss pronouns.
On Oct 6, as she underwent her pre-op assessment, a trans nurse not involved in her care entered her private examination room. Ms Steele still believes that she was “targeted” because she had expressed gender-critical views.
Later that day she sent a complaint demanding same-sex care and an assurance that after her operation a male – or a transwoman – would only enter her room with her prior agreement.
Emails between staff, seen by The Telegraph, said that they “perceive the patient’s request and rationale as a discrimination on gender and sex against… hospital employees”.
At 7.36pm the following evening, which was a Friday, Maxine Estop Green, the hospital’s CEO, emailed her notifying her that “we do not share your beliefs and are not able to adhere to your requests” and therefore the operation was being cancelled.
Ms Steele did not see the email and only found out about the cancellation when her prescription did not arrive. She tried to contact Ms Estop Green but got her out of office all weekend.
The CEO later admitted that Ms Steele’s privacy and dignity were breached when the trans nurse entered her room and Ms Estop Green said she “sincerely apologise[d]” and recognised “how unsettling this must have been”.
The hospital maintains that the nurse who “inadvertently” entered her private room would not have seen any of her pre-assessment forms or her gender-critical views.
