Recording biological sex on NHS patient records is now mandatory, it has emerged.
Previously, NHS England Digital only required a patient’s gender to be entered on their electronic health record. In April, however, NHS Core Information Standard — which determines essential data to be shared between health care providers — made “sex at birth” a mandatory field.
Campaigners have long argued that prioritising ‘gender identity’ over biological sex is clinically unsafe, makes research statistics unreliable, and undermines patient confidence in the NHS.
Vital information
Breaking the news last month, Professor Alice Sullivan welcomed the change as “an important step forward for patient safety and care”.
Victoria Keilthy, a senior NHS Trust manager and author of a report on NHS data accuracy, wrote: “A nerdy but very important change has been made to NHS data standards. Shockingly the NHS previously did not require a patient’s sex to be recorded in their patient records but it did require their stated gender to be recorded.
“But the latest iteration (version 2.01) now recognises the importance of sex to safe care and makes sex a mandatory item (‘M’).”
Advocates of biological sex welcomed the announcement. Women’s Rights Network announced: “Good to see that NHS England have finally caught up with reality”.
Baroness Sharron Davies of Devonport remarked: “As it should always have been. It’s vital to correct medical treatment to know biological reality. How on earth was that ever in question?”
Clinical care
Ahead of the change, in her report Incoherent and Unsafe: How the NHS’s failure to reliably record sex puts patients at risk, Keilthy outlined the importance of biological sex in a clinical setting.
She said: “To give safe healthcare, it is essential that healthcare professionals know a patient’s sex.
“Sex differences are not confined solely to diseases related to reproductive anatomy such as ovarian or testicular tumours, endometriosis or prostate hypertrophy. Sex differences have been found in every tissue and organ system of the body.
“These sex differences influence the diagnosis, medication, care and treatment of very many health conditions.”
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