Nurse in pronoun row relieved to be reinstated in job after disciplinary hearing

A nurse has told of her relief after being reinstated in her job following a disciplinary investigation over a possible breach of a transgender patient’s confidentiality.

Jennifer Melle was suspended after speaking to the media about having received a warning over using incorrect pronouns to address the patient.

Following a private disciplinary meeting with Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust on Tuesday, Ms Melle has been reinstated to clinical duties and will face no further action over the alleged breach.

The trust said while details including the patient’s physical appearance, diagnosis and treatment  – which are deemed confidential information – were shared publicly, they were not aware that anyone had identified the patient as a result.

Ms Melle, 40, from Croydon, south London, said she was racially abused by a transgender patient at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton in May 2024 after she referred to them as “Mr”.

The nurse was given a written warning from the trust at the time and continued in her role, and the trust also wrote to the patient to warn them that threatening and racist language was 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) says that nurses have a “duty of confidentiality to all those who are receiving care” including ensuring “information about them is shared appropriately”.

A breach of patient confidentiality can lead to a range of sanctions including warnings, extra training and dismissal.

Ms Melle said she felt “deeply relieved and grateful” at the decision, following an “incredibly long and painful journey”.

Speaking outside Epsom Gateway, where the meeting was held on Tuesday, Ms Melle said: “I am deeply relieved and grateful to hear that Epsom and St Helier Hospital has confirmed it will take no further action against me. This has been an incredibly long and painful journey, and today I want to give thanks, first and foremost, to Jesus, who has sustained me every step of the way.

“The recent legal victory for the Darlington nurses has shown that sanity and common sense are finally beginning to return to the NHS. It marks a turning point.

“No more nurses should ever have to endure what the Darlington nurses went through, what Sandie Peggie went through, or what I have gone through. None of us should be punished for speaking the truth, for standing by our professional judgment, according to our deeply held beliefs.”

An Epsom and St Helier Hospitals NHS spokesperson said: “Following an investigation into a breach of patient confidentiality, we are pleased that a member of staff who was previously suspended on full pay is being reinstated to clinical duties.

“Racial abuse of our staff will never be tolerated and we are sorry that she had this experience.”

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.

She has been supported in her case by Darlington nurses Bethany Hutchison and Lisa Lockey, and Fife nurse Sandie Peggie, who have all been involved in tribunals regarding facilities shared with transgender colleagues.

Ms Hutchison and Ms Lockey cheered and hugged Ms Melle when she left the meeting.

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 sharing 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.

“I remain determined that the lessons of my case and the cases before me must be learned,” Ms Melle said.

“The NHS must protect its staff, uphold fairness and ensure no nurse is ever again placed in an impossible position for simply doing that job with integrity.”

In a statement issued by Christian Concern, an evangelical advocacy group which has supported Ms Melle, the nurse also said: “We call on the Health Secretary Wes Streeting to immediately implement lawful policy in line with the Supreme Court ruling that upholds biological reality that men are men and women are women.”

Among Ms Melle’s other supporters is shadow equalities minister Claire Coutinho.

Ms Coutinho was one of eight cross-party MPs to sign an open letter to the chief executive and chairman of Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, raising “serious concerns” about the disciplinary process against Ms Melle.

In a video posted on X on Tuesday evening, Ms Coutinho said: “We saved Jennifer. I’m so pleased to say that Jennifer did not lose her job today.

“Unfortunately Jennifer, like the Darlington nurses, like Sandie Peggie, has been hounded and harassed by the NHS for saying what we all know to be true: Biological sex is real.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said on X: “I am delighted for Jennifer that common sense has prevailed. But it is not justice.

“Jennifer has been dragged through the mire for two long years. And for what?

“Radical gender ideology that makes a mockery of the law. The Government must act to end these absurd witch hunts.”