Streeting must end the madness within NHS

Fury over suspensions for staff in trans battle

- By Giles Sheldrick

WES Streeting has been told to personally intervene in a new “biological reality” row that threatens to engulf the NHS.

Campaigners have written to the Health and Social Care Secretary begging him to end the madness that has seen a nurse suspended and silenced after she refused to use female pronouns for a convicted paedophile because of her Christian beliefs.

Jennifer Melle’s career is on hold following disciplinary action for “misgendering” a 6ft transgender sex offender.

Patient X, who was born male but now identifies as a woman, was jailed for luring boys into sexual acts while posing as a teenage girl on social media.

The offender was taken from prison to St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, Surrey, for treatment for a urinary condition in May last year — triggering an extraordinary case that has seen committed Christian Ms Melle, 40, effectively cancelled.

Meanwhile, in a separate gender row case that has cost taxpayers £220,465.93, a tribunal will resume tomorrow.

Nurse Sandie Peggie was suspended by NHS Fife after objecting to sharing a changing room with Dr Beth Upton — a trans woman — at Victoria hospital in Kirkcaldy.

Ms Peggie claims her treatment amounts to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act.

In Surrey, Ms Melle is being backed by the Darlington Nursing Union, an alliance of eight nurses fighting for the right to be allowed a female-only changing room in yet another case.

In a letter to Mr Streeting, seen by the Daily Express, its president Bethany Hutchison said: “Ms Melle is a capable nurse who wants to return to work. Because of her deeply held Christian convictions, she believes that sex is immutable.