written by: Anonymous

NOTE: This is one of many testimonies regarding institutional capture, given to me by employees, students and service users in various sectors across the UK. See this page for more examples.

The sex of our patient is now recorded under the heading ‘Gender Identity’. So the words ‘female’ and ‘male’ are divorced from their medically accurate meanings for any patient identifying as being transgender. 

The London Ambulance Service guidelines for supporting trans people define the term Transgender as: ‘Someone whose gender identity or behaviour is different from those typically associated with their assigned sex at birth’. 

This reinforces sexist stereotypes that there are male and female behaviours. Sex is apparently now ‘assigned’ when it is, of course, observed with exceptional accuracy. 

The term ‘Transgender Male’ is used to refer to ‘a person transitioning to become male’. The term ‘Transgender Female’ is used to refer to ‘a person transitioning to become female’. 

This is reflected in the electronic patient care record that is completed by crews where the sex of our patient is now recorded under the heading ‘Gender Identity’. So the words ‘female’ and ‘male’ are divorced from their medically accurate meanings for any patient identifying as being transgender. Clinicians must remember that if they treat a patient whose gender identity is recorded as Transgender Male in their patient care record they are in fact treating someone who is female. 

We can record a patient’s Gender Identity as Non-Binary. The patient care record will therefore not record sex at all. 

The supporting trans people guidelines also includes a section titled ‘Intersex’. Why these medical conditions are included here is unclear. 

In practice, crews continue to accurately record the sex of their patient based on observation. A paramedic asking a woman if she was, in fact, female, would most likely result in befuddlement at best, and upset and insult at worst. 

We have been asked to include pronouns in email signatures. There is little take up of this.