NHS chiefs rip up pro-trans guidance as hospitals no longer told to allow transgender people to use their toilets and changing rooms

The previous guidance had instructed NHS staff to allow trans and non-binary people to access facilities in line with their gender identity rather than their sex at birth.

Following the Supreme Court ruling trans women should now use men's toilets and changing rooms, contradicting the earlier stance adopted across much of the public sector.

Women's rights campaigners are demanding an apology from the NHS Confederation over the withdrawn guidance, which they claim created unsafe conditions for staff and patients.

Maya Forstater, chief executive of Sex Matters, said: "Its guidance encouraged a hostile, humiliating and unsafe environment for NHS workers and patients. It was published with much fanfare but withdrawn by stealth."

She called for the confederation to "apologise publicly for undermining women's rights and the culture of care" and contact all NHS trusts to inform them the guidance was flawed.

Campaigners cited cases including Darlington nurses who were disciplined for demanding single-sex facilities as examples of the guidance's harmful impact.

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Jo Maugham KC, founder of Good Law Project, told The Independent: "The Supreme Court decision about the Equality Act doesn't mention toilets - not even once - and their provision is governed by separate legislation."

He added that Good Law Project is filing judicial review proceedings today, warning that organisations taking positions before the outcome "invite lawsuits against it and risk wasting money that ought to be spent on patient care in the pursuit of ill-advised culture wars."

TransActual said the development highlights the ruling's confusing implications, stating organisations are "damned if they act; damned if they do not."

The NHS Confederation confirmed to multiple outlets that it removed the guidance because it had become "dated" since the Supreme Court judgment.

A spokesman said: "We will update and reinstate our guide as soon as the EHRC has updated its Code of Practice, which will need to be approved by the UK government, and when NHS England has then updated its guidance for what the changes mean for NHS organisations."

The spokesman emphasised that withdrawing the guide "does not change our explicit commitment to support our members to reduce the unacceptably high levels of bullying, abuse and discrimination at work that trans and non-binary staff and patients face."