Introduction: the Scottish government is one of the hyper-progressive ones, so much so that it forced Rishi Sunak’s central executive to intervene with a veto on the “gender free” law. But common sense has also arrived from around Edinburgh. In recent hours, a law proposal has been put on paper that admits “unintended negative consequences” from the trans-inclusive policy to allow patients to delete references to their biological sex and to instead be recognized in line with theirs gender identity. No extraordinary measure, worthy of going down in history, but in this time plagued by fury woke nothing can be taken for granted.
As reported by Telegraph, this is a sometimes sensational step backwards. The Scottish Government has previously insisted on allowing patients to present themselves with their gender identity for a “better experience” and to enable “better healthcare planning”. Now, however, the new guidelines proposals recognize a “clinical risk” if medical staff were kept in the dark about a patient’s biological sex. Here too the discovery of hot water, but still an important signal in the age of the awakened.
As highlighted by experts, some medical tests could be interpreted incorrectly when faced with a trans patient and could consequently be administered useless if not counterproductive treatments. “The classic example of where this could create a problem is hemoglobin, where abnormal values can be a warning sign for cancer”, the testimony of a Scottish doctor: “If a sample is assumed to be from a male when in actually comes from a female, you could miss out on really vital information.”
We remind you that in Scotland patients can change their sex officially recognized by the National Health Service simply by making a request to their family doctor. Furthermore, it is possible to change a digit of the CHI number – a unique code assigned to each patient – to be precise the ninth of the ten digits which is always an even number for women and an odd number for men. “The CHI number was meant to follow a patient from cradle to grave, to make sure everyone was easily identifiable and avoid confusion,” the doctor added: “It is very difficult to see any benefit in allowing patients to change it, especially as medical records are already confidential and doctors would only share information about biological sex if it is relevant.”
The SNP government has ordered a review of the data management policy for health and social care, with a draft of the new guidance sent to NHS staff for consultation. The proposed update highlights that the long-standing trans policy, in place for at least the last decade, could have “unintended negative consequences on (a patient’s) overall health where they have chosen a name and gender identity that differs from those currently legally designated. name and sex assigned to them at birth”. He adds: “Decisions based, for example, on test results, may differ between those with the XX chromosome and those with the XY chromosome due to physiological and biological differences. Therefore – it continues – there could be a clinical risk if the biological sex is not known to the doctor, since it may be necessary for the treatment to be based on the patient’s sex at birth rather than on his gender identity”. The draft handbook also requires that patients be informed of the dangers when requesting a change to their gender in medical records, a detail absent in the previous version. A step forward towards common sense, that’s for sure.