DOCTORS and nurses have been banned by woke NHS chiefs from asking patients if they are married — to avoid offending single people.
Medics are also told not to assume the gender of a patient’s partner.
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The guidance is in a 52-page document for staff at an NHS care partnership on the use of inclusive language.
It insists a patient’s marital status is personal information and should not be asked for unless medically relevant.
The guide, written by the Humber and North Yorkshire Care Partnership’s Best Place to Work manager, adds: “Not everyone chooses to marry or enter into a civil partnership.
“It is important to not make assumptions about a person’s relationship status or reasons for this.
“If we do need to ask about a person’s relationship status, we should use gender-neutral and inclusive language.
“We use: ‘Please tell us your marital or civil partnership status’. We do not use: ‘Are you married?’.”
The document also states staff should avoid saying only women can be pregnant, and instead declares anyone can chest-feed or express milk.
It means bosses are flouting guidance cracking down on the phrase chest-feeding — used to refer to non-binary parents.
Tory MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke blasted: “We keep hearing how the NHS has no money, but there’s always cash to employ these people who sit around deciding what people should be offended by.
“The last thing I’m going to be thinking about if I’ve broken my leg or had a heart attack is if the nurse’s questions offend me.
“Hospitals and doctors need to know who your family are, and this feels like a pointless obstacle to that.” The partnership was asked to comment.
