Nurse who spoke out in patient pronoun row faces disciplinary meeting

A nurse warned over using incorrect pronouns to address a transgender patient has arrived at a disciplinary meeting which is set to decide if she breached patient confidentiality when she spoke to the media about the incident.

Jennifer Melle is facing a private disciplinary meeting with Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust on Tuesday afternoon.

The 40-year-old, from Croydon, south London, said she was racially abused by a transgender patient, who had been transferred to St Helier Hospital in Carshalton from prison, in May 2024, after she referred to them as “Mr”.

Around 20 supporters waited outside Epsom Gateway to greet Ms Melle as she arrived for her meeting, including Darlington nurses Bethany Hutchison and Lisa Lockey, along with Fife nurse Sandie Peggie, who have all been involved in tribunals regarding facilities shared with transgender colleagues.

Some of the protesters held a banner which read: “Standing with Darlington nurses”, while others held placards which said: “Safe spaces for women” and: “Uphold reality”.

Ms Melle was given a written warning from the trust after the incident involving the patient and continued in her role.

The trust also wrote to the patient to warn them that threatening and racist language is not tolerated.

After Ms Melle spoke to the media about her experience in March 2025, she was suspended with full pay over concerns the patient could have been identified from press reports, potentially breaching patient confidentiality.

Guidance from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) states that nurses have a “duty of confidentiality to all those who are receiving care”, including ensuring “information about them is shared appropriately”.

Speaking outside Parliament on Monday, Ms Melle said: “I have mixed emotions (about) what is going to happen tomorrow, and it’s quite daunting to see that I could lose my career, I could be dismissed.”

Ms Melle, who has been a nurse for 13 years, said she loves her job and feels “let down” over the way she has been treated.

She added: “They need to bring out these policies and guidelines that we need to safeguard us, the staff, because it’s really traumatising for nurses.”

Separately, Ms Melle is taking the trust to an employment tribunal in April over claims of harassment, direct discrimination and indirect discrimination because of her gender critical beliefs, relying on the protected characteristic of religion or belief because of her evangelical Christian beliefs.

A spokesman for Epsom and St Helier Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Racial abuse of our staff is never acceptable, nor is discussing a patient’s private medical information publicly.

“We are sorry that Miss Melle had this experience and we issued a written warning to this patient, but we expect all staff to maintain patient confidentiality at all times.”

The Darlington nurses last week said they felt “massive vindication” when a tribunal concluded they had suffered harassment which violated their dignity and created “a hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment for them”.

The group, who had complained about sharing single-sex changing rooms with a trans colleague, hailed the ruling in their favour as “a victory for common sense and for every woman who simply wants to feel safe at work”.

Ms Peggie secured a partial victory in December in her claim against her employer, NHS Fife, after she complained about being forced to share changing facilities with a transgender doctor at a hospital.

She is appealing against the ruling in her tribunal case, which upheld her claim of harassment but dismissed allegations she had made of discrimination, indirect discrimination and victimisation.