Midwives at some NHS hospitals are being given the option to record the “gender identity” and sexual orientation of newborn babies.
Several NHS trusts have launched a £450 million patient record system, called Epic, which is produced by a giant American IT company called Epic Systems.
The default settings for registering a new patient, including newborns, contain an optional form asking their gender identity. It also asks for sex assigned at birth, pronouns, and sexual orientation.
Campaigners said it was “farcical” that NHS trusts had chosen to adopt “ludicrous elements of the software imported directly from the USA, such as the gender identity of babies”.
One midwife working at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust told the Mail on Sunday that they were “shocked” to find during a training session on the software that there was no option to record a baby’s biological sex on the form.
They said: “Why on earth hasn’t this form been adapted to be appropriate for a newborn? I hope that common sense will prevail and nobody will try to fill in those boxes. Unfortunately, common sense doesn’t seem to be in good supply.
“These are not mandatory fields. But this is the backbone of documentation that will follow babies for life. It’s proof the baby exists and is needed to get a birth certificate. The fact that it’s asking for assigned sex at birth is worrying.”
The US software has been adopted in at least ten NHS hospitals, after Epic won contracts reported to be worth at least £450 million in 2023, including at King’s College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’s in London.
• NHS nurseries ‘offer gender identity guidance’
The form for registering a new patient on the Epic system also includes an “organ inventory”, including “organs the patient currently has”, “organs present at birth”, “organs surgically enhanced or constructed” and “organs hormonally enhanced”.
In 2023, NHS bosses said the technology would be updated to record biological sex only, after midwives filling in forms for newborns reported they could only select “gender identity”.
Fiona McAnena, the director of campaigns at the sex-based rights charity Sex Matters, said: “It’s surprising and disappointing that, two years after calling this an ‘error’, NHS trusts across the UK are still registering the so-called gender identity of newborn babies in electronic patient records using software from a US company.
“Not only that, but GP clinics are using the software’s ‘organ inventory’ form, which records if babies have a penis or vagina, because records on sex have become so muddled and unreliable.
“This is a clear example of how harmful transgender ideology can be. The concept of babies having a gender identity is farcical, whereas a baby’s sex is essential medical information. This American software is being rolled out across the NHS, embedding misleading and confusing data in people’s personal medical records.
“NHS trusts can and do customise this software, so they could easily remove anything that might get in the way of accurate information and good healthcare. These trusts have made an active choice to include and adopt ludicrous elements of the software imported directly from the USA, such as the gender identity and pronouns of babies.
“It seems managers there are so in thrall to gender identity ideology that they are willing to risk medical clarity rather than ditch the pronouns.”
• Children in care ‘still being failed’ on gender ID
NHS England and Devon’s regional health board were approached for comment.
One Devon, which runs the Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust, said: “The system has a template when registering new patients, including newborns.
“When creating a newborn’s record the only data the system is configured to require is date of birth and legal sex.”
A spokesperson for the One Devon Electronic Patient Record programme, responsible for implementing Epic at University Hospital’s Plymouth NHS Trust and Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Claims that the Devon Epic EPR requires information about a newborn’s gender identity or sexual orientation are simply incorrect.
“When a record is created for a newborn, the only mandatory information required by the system is the baby’s date of birth and legal sex. There is no requirement within the system to record a newborn’s gender identity or sexual orientation, and no such data is collected as part of the registration process.
“Where staff have concerns, we would always encourage them to give feedback to their managers so that we can investigate any issues that have been raised.”
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