Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what policies the NHS has in place for patients who require to be treated and cared for by staff of a particular sex.

As stated in the NHS Constitution, patients have the right to express a preference for using a particular doctor within their general practitioner practice, and the practice must try to meet this request. In other instances, National Health Service organisations set their own policies on patients’ ability to specify the gender of the staff treating them.

In addition, the General Medical Council guidance to doctors states that, when proposing to carry out an intimate examination, doctors should offer the patient the option of having an impartial observer (a chaperone) present wherever possible. This applies whether or not the doctor is the same gender as the patient.