Health Secretary Sajid Javid is to review NHS guidance that says patients can be accommodated in hospitals according to the gender they say they identify with.

The controversial guidance, published in September 2019, means that patients who are biologically male can choose to stay in a female ward and use female facilities.

A recent investigation by The Telegraph found that the guidance goes as far as to permit biologically male sex offenders who identify as female to be placed on female-only wards.

Javid said: "All patients, including women and transgender people, should feel comfortable and safe in hospital.

"It's not wrong to look at whether guidance is right, or how it's being applied, to reassure everyone. I've asked the Department of Health for fresh advice."

The policy has been strongly criticised by women's rights campaigners, among them Baroness Nicholson, who called it "dangerous".

Writing in the Daily Mail, she said that in her correspondence with patients and staff across the NHS, she had heard of at least one report of rape.

Yet critics and whistleblowers "object at their peril", risking losing their jobs because of accusations of "transphobia".

"Many biologically female patients have understandably been left distraught, forced to share some of their most intimate and vulnerable moments alongside a member of the opposite sex," she said.

"Others, like those in the ward disturbed by their presence, have been left uncomfortable to a degree.

"Still others, as my correspondents from across the NHS have said, are alleged to have seen or experienced far worse.

"Yet, often, they object at their peril. Many of those who have expressed discomfort at this turn of events — be they patients or nursing staff — have been accused of transphobia and hate crime. Some nurses have lost their jobs."