In a joint statement, TransActual and Trans+ Solidarity Alliance said the guidance would “not survive contact with reality in resource-strapped hospitals and will create unworkable operational challenges”.

“This NHS guidance emphasises clinical judgment as the priority over blanket exclusion, but leaves individual healthcare professionals unclear on how to safely look after trans patients,” they said.

“Forcing trans people into spaces for our sex assigned at birth will never be the most clinically appropriate decision, and would push trans people away from accessing care.”