NHS hospitals are routinely allowing men who self- identify as women to share hospital wards with female patients.

Male patients do not even need to have started transitioning to be admitted on to a ward as a female, a probe has found.

The rules, which would appear to go against Department of Health policy to eliminate mixed sex wards, apply in every NHS trust in England, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Male patients do not even need to have started transitioning to be admitted on to a ward as a female, a probe has found. File photo

The NHS does not know how many transgender patients are accommodated on wards with the opposite sex because they are recorded in data as their preferred sex.

Staff at one trust are even advised to consult with the trans patient if a woman who has been a victim of sexual assault objects to sharing a ward with someone who is biologically and legally male. Official guidance from the Department of Health states: ‘Men and women should not have to share sleeping accommodation or toilet/bathroom facilities.’

Exceptions are made, however, ‘where it is in the overall best interests of the patient or reflects the patient’s choice’.

This gives male patients who identify as female the right to be treated as female, and vice versa for female patients who identify as male

Conservative MP David Davies said: ‘It’s quite right that a Conservative government made a commitment to end mixed sex wards. People with male bodies should be on male wards.’

A nurse in one hospital reported that a patient identifying as a transgender woman appeared to become sexually aroused on a female ward, distressing elderly patients. The report, from Freedom of Information requests, creates concerns about the ‘equality impact assessments’ undertaken by hospitals that are supposed to examine how policy changes affect all groups.

Many of the assessments appear to consider only the needs of trans patients and not other groups who are supposed to be taken into account due to other characteristics such as sex or race.

The rules, which would appear to go against Department of Health policy to eliminate mixed sex wards, apply in every NHS trust in England. File pic

‘If you aren’t even considering other groups in your equality impact assessments, your policy cannot be lawful,’ said Amanda Jones, a barrister at Great James Street Chambers in London.

The NHS’s interpretation of laws about the rights of transgender patients is ‘a mess’, she added.

Fewer than two in ten people who identify as transgender undergo reassignment surgery according to the Gender Identity Research & Education Society.

Transgender people must live as the opposite sex for two years, be assessed by doctors and diagnosed with gender dysphoria to be eligible for a gender recognition certificate.

Official estimates put the UK transgender population at around 0.7 per cent – up to 500,000 people.

However, only 5,000 certificates have ever been issued and no NHS trust requires a trans patients to have one. Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust said it would allow someone to identify as trans ‘without ever going to see a doctor’.

Fewer than ten trusts reported complaints or incidents concerning transgender patients.

A spokesman for NHS Improvement said: ‘As the guidance on mixed sex accommodation makes clear, decisions should be made in the best interests of all patients and based on the circumstances presented to NHS staff.’