A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
YUSU Welfare officer Bob Hughes has warned students to be vigilant after a student loans phishing scam has been revealed.
Her Majesty the Queen will be visiting York on Maundy Thursday, 5th April, as part of the 800th anniversary of York’s Charter for the traditional “Royal Maundy” ceremony.
A flood caused by a heating system “failure” forced the university IT services to shut down many essential systems on Sunday night, causing problems for many students on the eve of their exams and assignment due-dates.
YUSU LGBT Officer Emma Brownbill has branded the University of York Health Centre ‘lax’ after it repeatedly denied transgender students’ requests to update their records - and then failed to commit to changing its policies.
The centre has been criticised after it emerged that requests from transgender patients to change their titles and gender markers — from ‘Ms’ to ‘Mr’, for example — have been ignored.
Some trans students have been issued documentation that refers, often gratuitously, to their old gender.
“You have your average male student in his 20s, with a prescription that has ‘Ms’ on it,” Brownbill told The Yorker. “It’s completely bizarre, and quite nerve-racking for the student in question.
“We’ve had students who have been almost denied their medication because of the perceived mismatch between the title and the person who’s standing in front of the pharmacist”.
Under current NHS guidelines, GPs must change titles and gender markers on their records if asked to by a patient — and may be sued if they refuse to do so.
Transgender patients do not need to have reassignment surgery before making a request.
“Trans patients have a legal right to change their name and gender on their NHS records,” says the NIGB, the health governance watchdog.
Responding to criticism last week, the Health Centre said in a statement: “We have sought guidance from our PCT on how best to follow the current guidance…and wish to reassure our patients that we are working hard to resolve this matter”.
But Brownbill, herself an activist for transgender rights, says this is not enough.
“The NHS guidance on this matter is clear,” she told The Yorker.
“When a student comes with a request to change their gender marker, you do it.
“We have had students who requested at least a year ago to have their title and gender marker changed…and that’s just not happened.
“There have been problems with student records having wrong or mixed pronouns on them, gratuitous references to old names, references to gender status where it’s nothing to do with the issue at hand. And that’s affecting students’ lives here, now.”
We’ve seen a greater willingness to engage from the Health Centre of late, but…when this kind of thing is wrong, you’ve got to fix it
Brownbill blames the problem partly on the Health Centre’s computer records system, which ties patients’ titles to their biological sex. Records of a transgender patient’s former sex are kept by doctors’ surgeries for medical reasons.
Meanwhile, transgender people have spoken to The Yorker about the importance of the issue.
“It’s just common decency to show people a modicum of respect by gendering them correctly,” said one commenter via transgender support network tgboards.com. “I find it grating when misgendering a trans person…is shrugged off as if it’s no big deal”.
“What’s there to ‘work on’? Just start using the correct pronouns”.
YUSU have promised to raise awareness of the issue, and will inform the University administration of the need for action. But Brownbill stressed that the Union itself is “extremely limited” in what it can do directly.
“As a students’ union we’ve been aware of this for coming up to three, four years,” she said.
“We’ve seen a greater willingness to engage from the Health Centre of late, but…when this kind of thing is wrong, you’ve got to fix it.”
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