By Chantelle Billson
Copyright thepinknews
The UK government has announced extra support for adults facing the “staggering” wait for gender services.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the Press Association in May revealed that the number of children on waiting lists for NHS gender services had increased by almost 12 per cent over a 12-month period, with 6,225 patients under the age of 18 still to be seen at the end of March – up from 5,560 the previous year.
Waiting times for adults are equally as bad.
Some people have waited eight years at an adult gender dysphoria clinic in the South West, with more than 5,000 patients still not having had a first appointment. Evidence shows that the delay is causing higher rates of mental-health issues.
In response, NHS England has announced that thousands of adults on gender services waiting lists will receive more clinical and wellbeing support.
A new pilot, backed by £125,000, will provide those left waiting with access to support and information before appointments, including digital mental-health and community-based services.
The NHS has doubled investment in gender services and opened five new clinics over the past five years.
Pilot aims to ‘stamp out systemic health inequalities’
Wes Streeting, who announced the launch of the pilot scheme at the NHS England LGBT+ Health Annual Conference, in London, said: “It is fundamentally wrong that so many LGBT+ people still face challenges when accessing healthcare, including barriers such as discrimination, misunderstanding and miseducation.”
Health secretary Streeting went on to say: “The result is that LGBT+ patients face longer waits, have poorer experiences of health care and suffer from high rates of mental ill-health. This pilot marks a major step, acknowledging the unacceptable waits endured by thousands of transgender patients and starting to tackle it head on.
“As we build an NHS fit for the future, we will ensure that it is there for everyone equally and stamp out systemic health inequalities that the LGBT+ community face.”
Professor James Palmer, the NHS medical director for specialised services, added: “We know there are unacceptably long waits. This is why we have commissioned an independently led review into the operation and delivery of the adult gender dysphoria clinics, alongside work we have already undertaken to introduce new care models that are making significant progress in helping bring [these] down.”
But the announcement last month of the Levy Review, which will study the way in which adult gender clinics are run in England, was met with apprehension by TransActual.
“We are concerned that the focus will be on the legitimacy and efficacy of medication instead of improving healthcare and reducing waiting lists for consenting adults,” a spokesperson for the charity said. “We are also concerned that the lived experience of tens of thousands of people, and the wealth of international evidence and best practice, will be ignored.”
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