‘We were forced to change in front of a man’

Eight nurses at the Darlington Memorial Hospital are suing their hospital trust for failing to provide a single-sex changing room. Thanks to the NHS’s transgender policies, the nurses were forced to change alongside a man who identifies as a woman. They claim that ‘Rose’ stared at them as they undressed, would linger for too long and, on one occasion, repeatedly asked a nurse, ‘Are you getting changed yet?’. Yet when the nurses raised concerns for their privacy, dignity and safety, they were chastised by HR for being insufficiently inclusive. Last year, they launched their legal case, supported by the Christian Legal Centre. Earlier this year, they established the Darlington Nursing Union to defend women’s rights in the workplace.

Although the Darlington nurses’ case is yet to reach the tribunal, their position has already been vindicated, first by the UK Supreme Court earlier this year, which upheld the right to single-sex spaces, and then last week by UK health secretary Wes Streeting, who ordered Darlington Memorial Hospital to provide a female-only changing room. Bethany Hutchison, president of the Darlington Nursing Union, spoke to spiked about her case and the battle ahead for women’s spaces.

spiked: Can you tell us about the background of your case?

Bethany Hutchison: Back in 2023, there were discussions on our ward regarding a biological male who was using our changing facilities. A lot of the nurses were unhappy with this, so I decided to advocate on behalf of those women. I told a sister on the ward: ‘Look, this needs to be raised as a concern.’ When she raised it with the senior team, however, she was told that nothing could be done because of the trust’s trans-inclusivity policy. So it was swept under the carpet.

When more nurses kept coming forward, we wrote a letter to the senior team at the hospital. It was signed by 26 women. After that, HR told our ward manager that her staff need to be more inclusive, to be educated and to ‘compromise’. This was pretty shocking – and pretty callous considering we had survivors of sexual, physical and mental abuse using the changing room. One of our nurses even suffers from PTSD. We had raised a genuine safety concern, and the response was that we should ‘broaden our mindset’.

I think the public response that has come from all of this demonstrates there is a wider concern. The fact that the NHS – the largest employer in the UK, and one of the largest globally – can take a genuine safety issue like this and say, you’ll just have to tolerate it, is not a great look. It’s happening across the rest of society, too – in institutions like the police and in women’s sports. It’s fair to say that there is a cultural disregard for women’s safety and women’s concerns.

spiked: The case gained a lot of traction online. What impact did the response have on you and your colleagues?

Hutchison: We were all quite taken aback at first – a little bit scared. But when a few of us lifted our anonymity, the support we received was overwhelming. We started getting letters from the public and members of parliament. Cards were sent to the trust. Emails were sent to our legal team. We even had Kemi Badenoch speaking about us in the House of Commons, and Claire Fox in the House of Lords. We’re grateful to health secretary Wes Streeting too, for standing with us – we really hope to see his promises put into action.

Of course, there was a certain amount of negative attention too. Steve North, the president of Unison union – which a few of our ladies were members of – referred to our campaign as ‘anti-trans bigotry’. Ironically, he did us a massive favour, because he identified a huge gap in the market for a union that would actually advocate for women working in healthcare. That’s why we launched the Darlington Nursing Union, which I’m really proud to be president of.

spiked: Why is it so difficult for people to challenge trans activism in the workplace?

Hutchison: Part of me suspects people don’t like to be seen as unkind – particularly women. We are inherently programmed to show kindness. And in an organisation like the NHS, which is predominantly female, it’s especially difficult to raise your head above the parapet and say, ‘Actually, I don’t agree with a man being in my changing room’. People are absolutely filled with fear.

At a certain point, we have to look at these demands for ‘kindness’, because they’re not kind for women. We have a massive international workforce in the NHS, and some of our nurses are deeply uncomfortable with changing in front of a man on religious grounds. We have women who have survived horrific abuse. We have women who just want some dignity when they’re getting changed. But the response is: ‘No, you have to be quiet to appease a man who thinks he’s a woman.’

spiked: What changes would you like to see to ensure women don’t have to go through what you and your colleagues have?

Hutchison: For me, it’s a matter of policy change. We’ve had the Supreme Court ruling, but people are still dragging their feet when it comes to implementing it. Again, I think it’s because they’re governed by fear. People have been intimidated into silence and inaction by organisations such Stonewall.

It’s also worth noting that, regardless of the Supreme Court ruling, which merely clarified what sex means, the Workplace Regulations have been around since 1992 – meaning single-sex facilities should never have been compromised in the first place.

Bethany Hutchison was talking to Georgina Mumford.