No ‘girls’ or ‘boys’ at Great Ormond Street

New hospital guidance warns of disciplinary action if workers deliberately use the wrong pronoun

Doctors and staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital have been advised not to use terms such as “girls” and “boys”. Diversity guidance for staff at the children’s hospital urges them to “stop using gendered language” in conversation, and suggests the wrong pronouns can make people feel “disrespected, invalidated, dismissed, triggered, alienated or, often, all of these things”. It also urges doctors and other staff to avoid making assumptions about people’s gender.

DOCTORS and staff at a world-renowned children’s hospital have been advised not to use terms such as “girls” and “boys” in diversity guidance.

The advice for staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) urges them to “stop using gendered language” in conversation, and suggests the wrong pronouns can make people feel “disrespected, invalidated, dismissed, triggered, alienated, or often, all of these things”.

The guidance, entitled “Using Pronouns at GOSH”, has been produced by the hospital’s diversity and inclusion team and pride network, and is published on the hospital’s intranet, with staff urged to “please” read it to “understand more about others’ pronouns and how you can be an ally”.

The London hospital is set to become one of the new child gender care centres following the closure of the Tavistock clinic.

In a section entitled general guidance, the advice cites “gendered language” that staff should stop using includes “things like ‘guys’, ‘girls’, ‘boys’, ‘ladies’, ‘gents’, ‘dudes,’ etc. when addressing groups – even informally”. Instead, it suggests words such as “team”, “all”, or “everyone”.

In consultations, it urges doctors and other staff to avoid making assumptions about people’s gender, suggesting options such as “My name is (NAME), and my pronouns are she and her. What about you?” or “What pronouns do you use?”

It also warns that any member of staff who deliberately uses the wrong pronoun for a colleague will be seen as “acting in a harassing and/or discriminatory manner and may be subject to disciplinary procedures”.

The guidance, seen by The Daily Telegraph, follows an inquiry ordered by Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, into taxpayer-funded national guidelines telling staff to treat all patients as gender-neutral. It instructed doctors and nurses not to use phrases such as “Mr” and “Mrs” or “he” and “she” until a patient confirmed their gender identity.

GOSH maintained the document was not part of its official policy, although it acknowledged it was on its official intranet site as guidance that staff were urged to read.

Lottie Moore, head of biology matters at the think tank Policy Exchange, said: “It is deeply concerning that the UK’S leading children’s hospital is pressuring staff to adopt beliefs that are highly contentious and potentially damaging to children’s long-term wellbeing.

“A hospital dedicated to caring for vulnerable children is no place for lectures on gender identity – especially as these beliefs are not evidence-based. It is time for the NHS to crack down on this madness.”

However, a GOSH spokesman said: “We want all of our staff at GOSH to feel welcome and included at work in an environment that respects them for who they are, as well as the job they do.

“Anyone discriminating against another individual on the basis of race, gender, sexuality or any other protected characteristic will be addressed via our official dignity at work policy.”

The hospital said the document had been written by members of its LGBT community to help staff navigate what could be a “complex landscape”, and said the references to girls and boys related to staff rather than patients.

The disclosure follows controversy last month when it was revealed GOSH staff were provided with guides claiming there were 150 ways to express gender. They were provided by Global Butterflies, a trans campaign group, engaged by the hospital to speak to workers. One member of staff concerned by the document and guides questioned whether “such an ideological hospital” could help children in line with the recommendations of the independent Cass Review into gender identity services, which followed the Tavistock controversy.

GOSH said its service was aligned with the Cass Review recommendations and latest clinical evidence, adding that it was an “urgently needed new service to address the large and rising waiting list of young people needing care”.

Other medical institutions have previously come under fire over diversity language guidance. Cromwell private hospital in London was criticised last month for labelling women as “patients of childbearing potential” on medical forms. Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, a charity, was criticised for advising medics to use the term “bonus hole” or “front hole” as an alternative to vagina as part of a glossary created in partnership with the LGBT Foundation.

‘A hospital dedicated to caring for vulnerable children is no place for lectures on gender identity’