Transsexual surgeon's job is safe (Daily Telegraph)

Monday
1 April 1996

A LEADING orthopaedic surgeon’s admission that he is transsexual will not affect his position in the NHS, according to one of the hospitals where he works.

William Muirhead-Allwood, who assisted at the hip replacement operation on the Queen Mother, made public statements yesterday about his sexual identity. It was reported that he is considering a sex-change operation.

He said that he had decided to speak out to pre-empt a tabloid newspaper story about him and said that his wife and two sons knew about his sexuality.

A consultant surgeon at the Whittington Hospital, north London, and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, London, he has private rooms in Wimpole Street.

Laura Guest, general manager of the Whittington Hospital, said: “We have every confidence in his clinical competence and his ability.”

A spokesman for the Brtish Medical Association said: “The sex of a doctor, male or female, does not affect their competence.”

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