- Every patient deserves high-quality patient-centred care, and trans people are no different.
- Take a whole-hospital approach to trans inclusion and make sure staff know what the trust’s expectations are and offer them training to support them to meet them.
- Make sure your policies, procedures and practices reflect your responsibilities in relation to the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty.
- Find ways to signal that you’re trans inclusive – for example by wearing a rainbow lanyard or by displaying a trans flag poster.
- Display trans-inclusive health promotion materials and ensure that your literature and forms are trans-inclusive. Use additive language such as ‘women and anyone else who has a cervix’.
- Provide gender-neutral facilities in addition to facilities for men and for women. Remember that trans men ought to be able to access facilities for men and that trans women ought to be able to access facilities for women, unless there is a specific reason for a particular individual to be denied access to them. The Equality Act 2010 states that this reason must be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
- Avoid making assumptions about your patients and their bodies – if in doubt, ask.
- Use the name and pronouns a trans patient has asked you to and, where relevant, make sure you make any changes to their record in a timely manner.
- Keep it relevant. Only ask trans people questions related to their transition if they’re relevant to their condition or to their care.
- Protect trans people’s privacy. This is not just in relation to a person’s trans status, but also in understanding that they might wish to have more privacy than other patients during an inpatient stay.
- Take steps to avoid triggering trans people’s dysphoria. Ask them which words they use to refer to their body and by show extra consideration in situations that may be more uncomfortable for a trans person than it would for other patients.
- Ensure that trans patients are protected from discrimination, harassment and abuse and make sure that such behaviour is not tolerated in your hospital.
Errors or omissions
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