LogFAQs > #980235371

This is sort of a misunderstanding of the NHS usage of the term ward. In the US a ward is like a department, a cluster of individual rooms for one or two patients all requiring the same kind of care and sectioned off from the rest of the hospital. In NHS hospitals, instead of having clustered rooms for individuals, generally have large rooms with 4-8 beds with privacy curtains and a single shared bathroom. These beds are under the supervision of a single head nurse, and the room itself is called a ward. Some wards are specialized (maternity, oncology, emergency, etc.) but even the general population are all placed in wards. Under the 2012 amended NHS Constitution, all NHS wards must be single-sex, with exceptions for certain emergency situations or wards for certain kinds of treatment such as chemotherapy.

This means that if you are admitted to an NHS hospital as a general patient, you are placed in a mens ward or a womens ward.

The new proposal would see that transgender women are not allowed to be placed in wards for women, meaning they would either be placed in mens wards, or they would have to have separate wards specifically for transgender patients.