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Asking vulnerable men if they are pregnant

Posted By Gender Critical

"Asking vulnerable men if they are pregnant"

About: The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust / Neurology

(as a service user),

This was an absolutely horrendous experience for my partner, he was already confused and only just recovering from a massive seizure leaving him still in the postictal stage and still in a very confused and forgetful state. A scan at A&E following the seizure revealed a gbm4 which was later debulked during a successful craniotomy and still at recovery stage with limited left-sided movement. 

So far so good! No unexpected problems from surgery, his care has been impeccable and totally patient centred, until it was time for his MRI scan, where a so-called health care professional proceeded to ask my dazed and confused most obviously a man if there's a chance he could be pregnant. He's been on high dose steroids which make him so hungry, he eats more than before, so his tummy is unusually rotund (also on anti seizure medications and strong pain relief). 

This totally inappropriate and unnecessary question made him extremely confused and looking down at his belly, and he asked me if they were taking the piss. Brain cancer patients can lose their filter and have dramatic mood swings especially in stressful situations. 

I don't appreciate the stress this put him under for an already extremely vulnerable patient, totally disregarding his needs, the opposite to the patient centred care he'd previously received. 
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Responses

Response from The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust nearly 2 years ago
The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 14/06/2022 at 11:48
Published on nhs.uk at 11:49

Thank you for your comments and we were sincerely sorry to learn of your experience at The Walton Centre when your partner attended for his MRI scan. We are sincerely sorry that your experience differed somewhat to the previous patient centred care that you had received.

Our policy relating to asking all patients if they are pregnant before undergoing procedures involving ionising radiation and MRI adheres to national legislation. This is because certain amounts of radiation can be harmful to foetuses in utero. We believe asking all people who are having their abdomen imaged/scanned in this way, regardless of gender, is the least intrusive way of ensuring it is safe to proceed. We do, however, appreciate from your comments and experience, the difficulties and distressed this caused to both you and your partner at the time. We would like to assure you that we will feed your comments back to the Radiology Management Team to share with staff, to ensure they learn from this and to always mindful when explaining to patients and their family members to reasons for asking this question, especially if patients are showing signs of confusion.

If we can be of any further help please contact wcft.patientexperienceteam@thewaltoncentre.nhs.net or call 0151 556 3090 / 3091 or 3093 and we will be happy to discuss your concerns further.

With kind regards

The Patient Experience Team

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