Nurse suspended for 'misgendering' transgender patient faces delaying tactics

A nurse who called a transgender paedophile under her care ‘Mr’ is left waiting in legal limbo as officials wait for equalities guidance from the government.

Jennifer Melle, who was suspended after the incident, worked as a nurse at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, Surrey. As she was discussing the care of a patient, who was a convicted paedophile and inmate at a high-security prison, she referred to them using a male pronoun.

The patient took issue with her words, to which Ms Melle replied: “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”. At this the patient subjected Ms Melle to racial and religious aggravated assault, lunging at her and repeatedly using racial slurs.

Ms Melle was investigated and suspended by the hospital, after which she filed a legal claim for harassment, discrimination and human rights breaches.

Ms Melle has criticised the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) for their delay in implementing their judgement after they cited the need to wait for regulatory guidance.

“I was racially abused in my workplace, and instead of protecting me, the Trust punished me,” Ms Melle said. “My Christian faith teaches me that sex is immutable. I should not be forced to deny that truth to keep my job. The Supreme Court has spoken clearly: biological sex matters in law. Yet the RCN, an organisation that claims to champion equality, chooses delay over action. Nurses like me are left vulnerable while ideology trumps reality. This is not inclusion; it is discrimination.”

The NHS and other service providers are waiting for updated guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), following the Supreme Court ruling in April that sex is determined by biology rather than gender identity. The EHRC submitted their revised guidance to the Minister for Women and Equalities, Bridget Phillipson, in September, but it has not yet been published.

The RCN has said that, “we await the EHRC statutory code of practice for services, public functions, and associations, and the code may provide guidance on how this relates to the provision of health and care services.”