New ‘cost-saving, life-saving’ transgender clinic deal signed

Ellie Jones from LGBTQ charity Liberate said the new contract would help save lives.

It has taken a year to negotiate the contract with the London Transgender Clinic – a private establishment that helps transgender and non-binary individuals.

Historically, HSC has referred transgender patients aged 18 and over to NHS Charing Cross and then NHS Tavistock hospitals.

Now all those patients under NHS care – most of whom were on the waiting list and have not commenced any treatment – have been offered the opportunity to transfer their care. Between 40 and 50 referrals have been made, including new referrals and those from the NHS waiting list.

‘The waiting time for NHS referrals can be as long as five years,’ said a Health & Social Care spokeswoman.

‘This new contract reduces the waiting time to months rather than years.

‘There is no change to the treatment provided/funded under this new contract.’

Mx Jones welcomed the move.

‘The new health care agreement will save lives and as an added bonus will save the States of Guernsey money,’ she said.

‘Waiting five years for any health care will cause untold mental health problems for the person waiting. The trans community face so much discrimination, we are glad that the States health department have addressed this by making sure there is access to timely health care.’

The cost of the new contract is commercially confidential, but the spokeswoman said the move represented a cost saving for HSC when compared with the NHS hospital contract.

The States routinely funds assessment, psychotherapy and counselling for transgender people. Patients are expected to undergo local assessment with either Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services or Adult Mental Health Services before being referred to the specialist gender identity clinic.

The London Transgender Clinic

The clinic was set up in 2015 in response to a significant increase in enquiries from transgender and non-binary people, many of whom were unable to access good and timely care from the NHS.

NHS waiting lists

People wanting even a first appointment with a gender clinic are facing a wait of years on the NHS.

The Gender Identity Clinic is the largest in the UK and is in London, close to Charing Cross Hospital. It is provided by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. It receives about 350 referrals per month. As of its most recent data from May 2022, it had more than 11,000 people on its waiting lists.

While it managed to have nearly 1,000 appointments during May 2022, only 50 of these were first appointments. The clinic is currently dealing with first appointments for people referred in January 2018.

It is estimated there are between 200,000 and 500,000 trans people in the UK.

The service offers a number of different surgical and non-surgical treatments, hormone therapy and diagnoses.