Eight nurses at the Darlington Memorial Hospital are suing their hospital trust for failing to provide a single-sex changing room. Thanks to the NHS’s transgender policies, the nurses were forced to change alongside a man who identifies as a woman. They claim that ‘Rose’ stared at them as they undressed, would linger for too long and, on one occasion, repeatedly asked a nurse, ‘Are you getting changed yet?’. Yet when the nurses raised concerns for their privacy, dignity and safety, they were chastised by HR for being insufficiently inclusive. Last year, they launched their legal case, supported by the Christian Legal Centre. Earlier this year, they established the Darlington Nursing Union to defend women’s rights in the workplace.

Although the Darlington nurses’ case is yet to reach the tribunal, their position has already been vindicated, first by the UK Supreme Court earlier this year, which upheld the right to single-sex spaces, and then last week by UK health secretary Wes Streeting, who ordered Darlington Memorial Hospital to provide a female-only changing room. Bethany Hutchison, president of the Darlington Nursing Union, spoke to spiked about her case and the battle ahead for women’s spaces.

spiked: Can you tell us about the background of your case?

Bethany Hutchison: Back in 2023, there were discussions on our ward regarding a biological male who was using our changing facilities. A lot of the nurses were unhappy with this, so I decided to advocate on behalf of those women. I told a sister on the ward: ‘Look, this needs to be raised as a concern.’ When she raised it with the senior team, however, she was told that nothing could be done because of the trust’s trans-inclusivity policy. So it was swept under the carpet.