Nurses accuse NHS belief of placing them ‘in danger’ over coverage which permits transgender colleagues to make use of ladies’s altering rooms

A group of nurses embroiled in a year-long dispute over a transgender policy have accused their NHS trust of ‘ignoring’ concerns for their safety. 

Bethany Hutchinson, who lives in County Durham, is one of eight women who are taking the NHS employment trust to a tribunal after their hospital allowed a transgender woman to use the women’s changing room.

Ms Hutchinson, a nurse who works at the Darlington Memorial hospital in County Durham appeared on Women’s Hour on Radio 4 yesterday where she spoke to BBC journalist, Nuala McGovern. 

The nurse, who insisted she does allege her transgender colleague is a ‘predator’ in any way, shared details of the ongoing row between hospital nurses who launched complaints against County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

Complaints about the policy have led to a year long dispute with staff, who claimed the response from the trust was ‘extremely unsupportive’ and that temporary solutions failed to resolve the issue.

One solution offered by the trust was to allocate a ‘locker room’ – though this was deemed insufficient by Hutchinson, who described the trans worker as biologically ‘male’.

Funded by the Christian Legal Centre, which acts on behalf of evangelical Christians in the UK, the nurses are now launching an employment tribunal against the trust.

The nurses – Bethany Hutchison, Lisa Lockey, Annice Grundy, Tracey Hooper and Joanne Bradbury – have been dubbed the ‘Darlington Five’.

Bethany claimed staff noticed the colleague was using the changing room despite not having ‘any warning or consultation from senior management’. 

She explained: ‘This has led to nurses having panic attacks before their shifts, it’s led to international women wearing clothing underneath their uniform because obviously, culturally they can’t be exposed in any kind of undress in front of any other male other than their husbands.

‘And generally just a feeling on anxiety amongst staff, you know, staff looking over their shoulder worried that this person is going to walk in and a state of undress.’

Ms Hutchinson said she refused to refer to the colleague in question as female, describing them as ‘I would say a male’ – though they themselves use she/her pronouns. 

‘I don’t agree to using that,’ Bethany said. ‘They are a male, they are acting like a male, they have all their male parts in place and I believe sex is a biological fact. It’s not interchangeable.’

Ms Hutchinson objected to the policy which allows transgender identifying women to access ‘female’ spaces. 

‘I personally don’t believe you should allow anyone in with XY chromosomes because, where do you draw the line. But it’s not up to me to make that decision,’ she said.

Ms Hutchinson made the decision to take the issue to an employment tribunal, claiming the trust put her and other nurses ‘at risk’.

‘Not by this particular person I may add. I’ve never alleged that this person is a predator.

‘But the policy that the trust has in place puts women as risk because it states that men can self identify as women and access the female changing room.’

Despite claiming she had never alleged the individual in question was ‘a predator’, Ms Hutchinson said the policy within the NHS put women at risk of ‘harassment, rape, sexual assault, voyeurism.’

She described the environment working alongside their transgender colleague as ‘hostile’.

‘I would like to point out that this is not a campaign against this one person, I do not hold anything against this person,’ she said, but added they were the ‘catalyst’ to her taking action.

She claimed the trust had been ‘extremely unsupportive’ in their response to complaints first made a year ago. 

During a meeting with HR, Ms Hutchinson said she and other nurses were told to be more inclusive and that they needed to ‘broaden their mind set’.

She said: ‘I’m dealing with nurses who’ve experienced sexual abuse as a child, nurses who been in relationships that are violent that have been violent at the hands of males, and I would defy anyone to sit across from these nurses and say you need to broaden your mindset.’

One solution proposed by the trust involved using a ‘locker room’ to separate the complainants from the trans staff member.

Discussing the suggested solution, Ms Hutchinson said: ‘I believe the trust think that they have done this to appease us, but my argument is that changing room, that locker room, still falls under the same policy. There is not another policy in place. So, if a transgender individual or self IDing person wanted to access that changing room they can.’ 

The tribunal is being funded by the evangelical group, Christian Legal Centre, which is part of Christian Concern.

Bethany described herself and her family as ‘unapologetically Christian’ though added the tribunal was ‘not a Christian campaign’.

In 2023. the Christian group represented anti-abortion campaigners from the group attempted to challenge buffer zones at abortion clinics.

Earlier this year, the group supported a member of staff from a school after she was sacked for ‘gross misconduct’ for sharing Facebook posts criticising plans to teach LGBT+ relationships in primary schools.

A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘The Trust is committed to providing a safe, secure, and respectful environment for all colleagues and patients, operating within the law and adhering to national policies.

‘Additional alternative changing facilities have been put in place, these include a private, individual, lockable changing room. An office has been converted into a locker room for the storage of belongings.

‘The Trust has processes in place for listening to and responding to concerns raised by any of our colleagues. We take all concerns raised seriously and investigate them thoroughly. An internal investigation continues to take place while the legal proceedings also continue.’