A National Health Service (NHS) nurse is taking legal action against her employer—after she was punished for calling a convicted criminal ‘mister,’ in contravention of his preferred (female) pronouns.
Jennifer Melle filed her legal claim against Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust following its pursuit of her in an October 2024 disciplinary action, resulting in a final written warning and a referral to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The trust also placed her on restricted duties, resulting in a loss of overtime payments.
Melle’s ordeal began when ‘Patient X,’ who had been admitted earlier from a men’s prison with a urinary problem, attempted to discharge himself from the hospital. ‘X’ overheard the nurse discussing his case—involving a catheter and his objective medical records—on a telephone call, and reportedly lunged at Ms. Melle while shouting racial epithets.
Melle responded by saying she would use the 6’ (183 cm) tall convict’s chosen female name, but that her Christian beliefs meant she would not be calling him a woman. After saying, “Sorry I cannot refer to you as ‘her’ or ‘she’, as it’s against my faith and Christian values but I can call you by your name,” the nurse was threatened, both physically and with an official complaint.
In response, her employer accused her of “not respecting the patient’s preferred identity” and concluded her actions could “be seen as a potential breach” of the NMC Code of Conduct.
Ms Melle’s legal claim against her NHS trust is being backed by the Christian Legal Centre. According to its Chief Executive Andrea Williams:
The Trust cannot force compelled speech on [its] staff and an urgent U-turn and apology is needed …. The NHS appears to remain captured by transgender ideology to the point it is prepared to back a convicted paedophile, who was clearly very disturbed and shouting racist comments, over the Christian nurse.
The controversy follows revelations that, by recording patients’ preferred genders over their biological sex, the NHS has failed to contact them regarding sex-specific medical procedures such as cancer screening. It also coincides with growing bewilderment in Britain at the reporting of sex crimes ‘by women’ that are clearly committed by men, such as Chleo Sunter (aka John Leslie Graham), who was caught with 790 pictures and 15 videos of men using Middlesbrough toilet cubicles and urinals.
