Trans crusade is distracting NHS from saving lives, says Nick Ferrari

Trans crusade is distracting the NHS, says (Image: Getty) The hijacking of our NHS is depressingly nearly complete. Despite it being blindingly obvious what it was set up to do, and the purpose being spelt out in the title of the National Health Service, it has been allowed to slide into becoming a virtue-signalling, unfocused, out-of-touch behemoth that puts social engineering above patient care on far too many occasions. Hospital waiting lists currently stand at a record 7.57 million and last week we learnt more than 120,000 patients died last year while on those accursed lists. Accordingly, what are we to make of the current obsession by so many health trusts to do seemingly everything in their power to curry favour with a range of trans charities,  including signing up to the Rainbow Badge scheme. Let’s be clear on this: the NHS needs to respect the wishes and sensitivities of all of its patients, but to potentially prejudice care for so many for the sake of what might be as small as 0.5 percent of the population is simply baffling. This badge scheme was originally a way for staff to show they supported LGBT+ patients and people by sporting the small enamel pin badge on their uniform. But it has been turned into an ‘assessment and accreditation model’ by NHS England at a cost of £220,000 to rate trusts on their inclusivity. NHS show support for LGBT patients (Image: Getty) Points are gained if new mums or pregnant women are referred to merely as ‘clients’ and a cervical screening clinic is labelled ‘colposcopy’ instead of women’s health. Given the lamentable state of sex education in this country, the likelihood of most young women even knowing what colposcopy means is at best remote. Disturbingly, a total of 77 health trusts up and down the country have enrolled in this scheme and one leading London hospital, the Royal Free in Hampstead, is reported to have advised staff not to ask trans patients for their names as it is ‘rude, intrusive and insensitive’. It’s nigh on impossible to think of anything more potentially risky or Orwellian than choosing to refer to a patient by their number rather than name. To stick with the ‘Big Brother’ theme, one professor (not working at the Royal Free) has revealed patients in some hospitals are even-handed a questionnaire asking how they feel they have been treated. ‘Have you been asked by staff, or on a form, if you have a trans history, or if your gender is not the same as the gender you were given at birth?’ it asks. And they wonder why morale among so many NHS staff is on the floor and staff are stampeding towards the exit! Diversity and inclusion are important. But so are a full knowledge of patients and provision of swift care. It’s high time the NHS remembered what it was put on Earth to do. Police making an arrest at Carnival (Image: ) So this is a carnival, is it? How many more times does the inappropriately named Notting Hill Carnival have to close with a night of random violence against the police and among the crowd before action is taken? Last Monday night, eight men were stabbed and at the time of writing one is in critical condition and another is serious but stable. One police officer was sexually assaulted and six others bitten. Yes, bitten! Troublingly, this can be seen as a possible improvement after last year, when one man was fatally stabbed. The Met Police Federation, the force’s staff association, has rightly said this is ‘unacceptable and unsustainable’. Carnival backers point to the fact that over two million attended the weekend celebrations as if that is some sort of perverse justification, but they choose to ignore that the most recent Pride March in London attracted nearly 900,000 supporters and no one got stabbed. Nor did any copper get bitten. It is time the carnival was moved from the narrow maze of streets in West London and put in a park where it can be effectively policed. Jonny May of England’s rugby team (Image: Getty) The last act of the tragic decline of English rugby was played out in front of a semi-deserted Twickenham stadium as the team were outplayed, out thought and out fought by first-rate Fijian opposition. This has been a long time coming and is down to the hopeless, tin-eared, unaccountable, clod-hopping halfwits who run English rugby. Rarely, if ever, has a sport been so criminally underserved by its supposed executive.  Is this reminder necessary? With police being told they must investigate all crimes, presumably it is also necessary to tell firefighters to put out fires and ambulance crews to pick up sick patients? As LIDL has so smartly signed up Arnold Schwarzenegger,  to promote its DIY range, presumably Sylvester Stallone’s phone is ringing off the hook as Aldi tries to lure him and fight back. We need better travel service If the air traffic control boss had to sleep on a camp bed in an airport, might we get a better service? C of E’s shameful decision Church of England clergy fear this can no longer be seen as being a Christian country and the C of E could even soon be on the verge of ‘extinction’. Depressing news on the Sabbath, I grant you. However, perhaps they should look to themselves to explain some of the decline. The fact churches were closed during the pandemic was a shameful decision and betrayed many at a time when they needed spiritual help and comfort like never before.