The Scottish government has previously insisted allowing records to reflect a patient’s “lived identity” has led to “improved patient experience” and “enables better healthcare planning”.
However, in a major about-turn, proposed new guidelines acknowledge a “clinical risk” if medical staff are kept in the dark about a patient’s birth sex.
It warns that some medical tests could be misread and incorrect treatments given as a result.
“The classic example of where this could create a problem is in haemoglobin, where abnormal readings can be a red flag for cancer,” one clinician working in Scotland told The Telegraph.
“The healthy ranges are different for men and women, so if it is assumed a sample has come from a male when in fact it’s from a female, really vital information could be missed.”
Source: Trans patients who change sex in medical records face ‘unintended negative consequences’
Under National Health Service (NHS) rules, a person who says s/he is the opposite identity from the sex with which s/he was born can request a completely new NHS number – and from that date is known by that NHS number and that number alone. The original NHS number is not attached in any way to the new NHS number, meaning that the entire medical/health history attached to the original NHS number is ‘lost’ from the system at least as regards the patient. This has obvious negative consequences and it is simply astonishing that any medical service professing to be professional should countenance this. As the change of number is officially done by the NHS, the patient – when suffering the negative consequences – has a right to sue. The success or otherwise of their claim will depend upon information imparted at the time the decision was made to relinquish the original NHS number. That the NHS would open itself to claims for damages/compensation at any time, much less now when it is struggling under failure of funding by government belies belief. Of course that the NHS thereby ignores medical reality, the vital importance of medical history, the inevitability of errors made in treatment etc means that (my opinion) it knowingly puts patients’ health, treatment, lives at risk. That the Scots government is having a rethink is astounding in light of its past position – Perhaps this enlightenment might extend to the criminal justice system, too – indeed to every area of government endeavour?