“Emergency. Which pronoun?” – 999 Operators Told to Ask Callers for Preferred Pronouns to Avoid Misgendering

Emergency operators have been warned to ask callers how they want to be referred to rather than ‘misgendering’ them based on their voices. The Mail has more.

NHS 999 operators have been told to ask callers their preferred pronouns to avoid misgendering them based on the sound of their voices.

Call-centre staff should also not use ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’, with one ambulance trust stating preferred pronouns should be sought even in emergencies so the experience is less stressful for trans patients.

Others say birth sex is often irrelevant to care, so operators can use patients’ self-identified gender.

The policies can be revealed today in the second part of an investigation into the spread of contested gender ideology in the NHS. 

As the Daily Mail reported last week, hospital trusts are letting patients who only occasionally identify as women into female-only wards. Maternity staff also refer to ‘birthing people’ rather than women and mothers.

Lottie Moore, from the Policy Exchange think-tank, said: “To expect anyone to be thinking of preferred pronouns in a 999 health emergency is ludicrous.”

The MoS asked England’s nine NHS ambulance trusts if they had specific guidelines for handling calls from transgender people.

North East Ambulance Service provided a staff document on ‘How to best support our gender-diverse patients’. It advises a patient’s sex “has no bearing on someone who has toothache, for example” so the gender they identify as can be used.

It adds: “It’s not our place to ask questions about gender identity at birth unless it is appropriate to the clinical assessment.”

Staff are told to pass the call to a clinician if “gender will complicate the triage”. But it goes on: “No-one can reliably diagnose gender from the tone or pitch of a voice or from a name. Therefore, take a gender-neutral stance at the beginning of a call. 

“Dropping gendered terms such as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’… avoids the accidental misgendering. Asking someone’s pronouns is a… non-intrusive way to determine gender.”

South East Coast Ambulance Service says asking for pronouns can make life-or-death calls more effective. Its guidance states: “Inappropriate pronouns do cause stress and may make an already difficult situation worse.”

Worth reading in full.