Like all good nurses, Jennifer Melle projects a mixture of benevolence and calm authority. Patients greet her warmly as she glides around St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, Surrey, dispensing smiles and soothing words. For as long as she can remember, nursing was her chosen profession. As a schoolgirl newly arrived from Uganda, she was told by her father that Britain was a place where she could fulfil her dreams.
Taking nothing for granted, she worked hard, gratefully seizing every opportunity. Now aged 40 and a mother of three, she is universally liked and respected.
Not once in her 12-year career has she received a complaint.
That, at least, was the case until one day last year when a burly 6ft-plus convicted paedophile, shackled to two prison escorts, shuffled into Ms Melle’s ward and loudly complained about a urinary problem.
Legal reasons prevent Patient X’s identification, though why this person, who was jailed for grooming young boys, is afforded such protection will doubtless confound many. Not least because that night, in a fit of rage, Patient X screamed racist abuse at Ms Melle – calling her the N-word three times.
She says: ‘It was terrifying. I’d never been called that word before. And I thought I was going to be attacked.’ At one point Patient X lunged towards her, straining against chains.
‘The whole thing – the terrible racial abuse, the aggression, which all happened in front of patients and staff – left me traumatised. And I was only trying to help.’
It is what happened next, though, that truly beggars belief. One might imagine that on hearing that one of its black employees was on the receiving end of possibly the most insulting and inflammatory slur in the English language, the diversity-obsessed NHS would back her to the hilt. Instead, her bosses decided she was in the wrong.
Jennifer Melle was subjected to racial abuse by a prisoner who had groomed young boys
In the eyes of Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust, the greater sin was that Ms Melle had referred to Patient X – who was born male but now identifies as a woman – as ‘mister’ and ‘he’ during a phone call with a doctor. It was this which prompted Patient X’s aggressive outburst.
Afterwards, Ms Melle was investigated and disciplined and, having been labelled a potential risk to the public, now fears losing her job. She wonders what happened to the ‘England of fair play’ of which her father once spoke.
After being given a final warning by the trust, she received a letter from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) last month saying it was investigating concerns about her fitness to practise because she ‘referred to a patient in a manner inconsistent with their gender identity’.
Yet it is one of the ironies of this case that Patient X had exploited gender identity by posing as a teenage girl online to incite under age boys to perform sex acts.
Ms Melle says: ‘I was put at risk, but I am being treated like a criminal. Sadly, if you put your head above the parapet and speak truthfully on these issues in the NHS, the risk is that you will be knocked down, punished severely and demoted. The message to me during the investigation was that I should put up with extreme racism and deny biological reality and my deeply held Christian beliefs for the sake of inclusivity.’
Culture wars’ excesses abound and to some extent we have grown inured to them. But Ms Melle’s experience, say campaigners, is ‘on a whole new disturbing level’. Last night there were demands for urgent government intervention.
In an unprecedented legal action, meanwhile, Ms Melle is suing the hospital trust for harassment, discrimination and human rights breaches. It is, of course, a case in which the NHS once again risks being accused of sacrificing common sense on the altar of gender ideology, and follows that of eight nurses from Darlington who took their trust to court after being forced to share a changing room with a biological man who identifies as a woman.
There is also the ongoing case of the nurse suspended after complaining about a trans medic using her female changing room. Sandie Peggie was put under a disciplinary investigation for a year by bosses at Victoria Hospital, in Kirkcaldy, Fife, after she objected to sharing the facility with Dr Beth Upton.
No doubt other battles lie ahead. With so many contradictory voices fighting to be heard, it is easy to see why many find the transgender debate difficult to navigate.
Even judges were issued with official advice last month. They were warned it is now ‘extremely inappropriate’ to refer to male rapists who say they identify as women by their preferred pronouns. Yet as it stands criminals are free to pick their gender because the Government refuses to force police to record biological sex.
‘It is a muddle,’ says Ms Melle. ‘I just call people by their first names, that is my way round this.’
That is indeed how she planned to address Patient X whose preferred name – a girl’s name – was written on the white board above her hospital bed on May 22.
That day Ms Melle was working a night shift. The previous day she and her colleagues learned that Patient X was arriving for treatment from a men’s prison. Ms Melle was shocked to learn of the patient’s crimes but resolved to deploy the same courtesy, professionalism and care as she would with anybody else.
St Helier Hospital, where Ms Melle referred to Patient X – who was born male but now identifies as a woman – as ‘mister’ and ‘he’ during a phone call with a doctor
In the event, she wasn’t assigned to Patient X and the start of her shift proved uneventful. At 10pm however a colleague, in some distress, approached Ms Melle saying that Patient X wanted to self-discharge. ‘X was shouting and upsetting other elderly and vulnerable patients on the ward,’ says Ms Melle.
A doctor was called for guidance but had not yet responded. As the senior nurse on the ward, Ms Melle decided to take charge.
When her colleague finally got through to the doctor, Ms Melle asked to speak to him, taking the call in the corridor just outside Patient X’s room.
Overhearing the conversation, Patient X began screaming in protest at Ms Melle’s use of the word ‘mister’. The prisoner shouted: ‘Do not call me mister, I am a woman!’
Ms Melle says the conversation with the doctor needs to be placed in context. Even if she was prepared to use alternative pronouns, she says it would have been absurd because the discussion related to a catheter – for a male – which needed to be removed. ‘This was a real-life medical scenario that required accurate terminology to avoid any doubt between medical professionals,’ she says.
Finishing the call, she stepped inside X’s room and found the patient pacing up and down. Ms Melle politely said: ‘I am sorry I cannot refer to you as “her” or “she”, as it’s against my faith and Christian values but I can call you by your name.’
She then began to relay the doctor’s advice, but was met with escalating abuse.
‘Imagine if I called you n*****?’, Patient X screamed. ‘How about I call you n*****? Yes, black n*****’
Ms Melle warned that if the vile abuse persisted, she would have to call security. ‘X lunged at me, getting really close, a few feet away, before the guards intervened,’ she says. Patient X then tried to follow her, shouting: ‘I want your name and NHS number, and I am going to report you to the police for homophobia.’
Though profoundly distressed by the confrontation, Ms Melle, later forced herself to return to X’s room with painkillers which calmed the patient down.
It is worth noting here that a white colleague had also referred to Patient X as a male but was not abused for doing so.
At the end of her shift, Ms Melle found herself still shaking as she travelled home on the bus. As she replayed the incident in her mind, a colleague who had taken over her shift rang her mobile to say that Patient X had been shouting for her and threatening to make an official complaint.
On her next shift, Ms Melle was taken aside by a ward manager and asked to make a statement.
She explained she was still feeling traumatised. But the manager insisted that she still had to respect equality and diversity.
Ms Melle was investigated and disciplined and, having been labelled a potential risk to the public, now fears losing her job
Ms Melle said she had no issues with people’s sexuality but asked where the respect was for her Christian beliefs and said that she ‘could not deny biological reality’.
But an investigation later concluded that ‘the [NMC] code of conduct outlines that in order to treat people as individuals and to uphold their dignity nurses should avoid making assumptions and should recognise diversity and individual choice.’
The code further states that nurses should ‘not express your personal beliefs (including political, religious or moral beliefs) in an inappropriate way. Therefore, although [Ms Melle] felt unable to identity Patient X using the preferred pronouns due to her religion… it could be perceived that [Ms Melle’s] actions could…be seen as a potential breach of the code’.
She was accused of ‘not respecting the patient’s preferred identity’ and told her actions and behaviour had ‘fallen short of the trust’s value of respect’.
Summoned to a disciplinary hearing in October, Ms Melle was given a final written warning and referred to the NMC.
After the incident, she was denied overtime which has affected her financially. With her career, livelihood and reputation now at serious risk, she says she was faced with no alternative but to file a legal claim.
She says that the NHS has unlawfully interfered with her rights under the European Convention on Human Rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Ms Melle, who says she has never previously had any issues with transgender patients, says: ‘I am devastated by how I have been treated and believe I am being institutionally abused, harassed, bullied and racially discriminated against. Ever since I have expressed my Christian beliefs under extreme pressure, I have been a marked woman.
‘I do not feel supported following the racial abuse and threat of physical violence I received from the patient. I remained professional throughout and always treat each and every individual with dignity and respect. My conduct throughout this incident and during my career has been fully compliant with the code.’
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting her case said: ‘The NHS appears to remain captured by transgender ideology to the point it is prepared to back a convicted paedophile, who was clearly very disturbed and shouting racist comments, over the Christian nurse.
‘We thought we had seen it all when it comes to controversial legal cases on these issues, but what Jennifer is experiencing at the hands of this ideology is off the scale and on a whole new disturbing level. Jennifer loves Jesus and is a talented nurse who should be supported and protected, not investigated and silenced. The trust cannot force compelled speech on their staff and an urgent U-turn and apology is needed.
‘We would ask Wes Streeting, as Health Secretary, to investigate what is happening here.
‘He is already involved in the Darlington nurses’ case, and has previously said he is “horrified” by how they are being treated. It’s time for Government intervention on this matter. It’s time for the Government to stop equality and diversity policies being weaponised in the NHS to punish innocent nurses just doing their job.
‘We will stand with Jennifer for as long as it takes for her to receive justice and with any other nurses who are discriminated against due to this dangerous ideology.’
An Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust spokesperson said: ‘These matters are still subject to ongoing internal proceedings, so it wouldn’t be right for us to comment further.’