FEMALE ONLY?

Level of care: QDS double up care 30, 60, 30, 45 female only

Postcode: ********

Gender: Female

This is one of many enquiries received from health and social services departments. It specifies that the staff must be female.

How right is this?

If you go to hospital, you do not have the choice of gender of your doctor. Or your nurse. Or your gynaecologist.

So what is the difference with care at home? Is it about the safety of the individual?

But all our staff are enhanced DBS-checked...

And is it not discriminatory against male staff?

CQC clearly feel it is not, because they insist on the customer’s right to choose.

Certainly it would aid our recruitment and our scheduling of this restriction did not exist.

Time for a debate?