'Mistrusted' male nurse wins sex bias case

A male nurse who accused a health service trust of sexual discrimination for refusing to allow him to carry out routine procedures and intimate examinations on female patients won his appeal yesterday.

In a case that has wide implications for the NHS, Andrew Moyhing, 29, said he had given up nursing because he was not allowed to do his job properly.

Among the simple procedures he said he was not allowed to carry out on women unchaperoned were electrocardiograms (ECGs) because one or both of the patient's breasts might be exposed.

He said his training was also hampered because he was prevented from learning how to carry out intimate examinations on women such as cervical smears and the insertion of tubes. Male doctors often carry out intimate examinations on women.

Mr Moyhing, who was based at the Royal London Hospital, east London, now works in financial services.

His lawyers said some of the practices he encountered were based on sexist assumptions that men were sexual predators, untrustworthy or voyeuristic. The case was also important because it highlighted the fact that equality rules were not just for women.

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Joanna Wade, Mr Moyhing's solicitor, said it was a waste of time and resources to have someone "twiddling their thumbs" at every NHS procedure that involved a male nurse and a female patient.

Mr Moyhing was supported by the Equal Opportunities Commission. He successfully challenged a employment tribunal decision, which found that it was acceptable for the trust to have a different chaperoning policy for male nurses than for female nurses when intimate procedures were given to patients.

He was awarded £750 in compensation for injury to feelings, but said he would not be accepting the compensation, as he did not want to divert resources from the health service.

"Male nurses are still seen as a bit of an oddity simply because there are so many more women in the profession than men, despite the fact that so many doctors are male," he said.

"I believe that ultimately, if male students are treated more equally, those such as myself who abandoned nursing as a career will stay on and the numbers will start to equalise."

Jenny Watson, the chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said: "The Employment Appeal Tribunal was right to find that it was not acceptable to have a chaperoning policy based on lazy stereotyping about the risks to patients and assumptions that all men are sexual predators.

"This judgment should help to ensure that such prejudices become a thing of the past."

The tribunal held that, while not all male nurses would have objected to having a chaperone imposed, Mr Moyhing did, as it made him feel as if he was considered untrustworthy.

As that was not an unreasonable reaction, the trust's policy constituted discrimination.

Charlie Sheldon, the deputy director of nursing at Bart's and London NHS Trust, against which the case was brought, said: "The tribunal has supported Mr Moyhing on only one limited point, awarding him minimum level compensation of £750.

"Allegations by Mr Moyhing that he had been held back in his career development or that male nurses were considered second-class citizens have been soundly rejected.

"The tribunal also acknowledged that Bart's and London NHS Trust had adopted its policies for good and objective reasons."

NHS guidelines state that "all patients should be routinely offered a chaperone during any consultation or procedure" and that "it is good practice to offer all patients a chaperone where the patient feels one is required".