Strain means transgender people face years of waiting

Thousands of transgender adults and children are facing waits of up to three or more years for gender identity treatment as NHS services continue to face growing strain from increased demand.

New figures show that the number of adults and children being referred to gender identity clinics in England rose from 3,330 in 2014-15 to 8,074 in 2018-19, an average year-on-year increase of around 25 per cent.

Five clinics offering services provided data following freedom of information requests. At the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, Britain’s first children’s gender identity clinic, the number of referrals for under-18s has almost quadrupled, from 678 in 2014-15 to 2,590 in 2018-19 - and average year-on-year increase of approximately 40 per cent. Overall, the longest wait for a first appointment across all the five clinics that responded was 1,133 days.

Health leaders have argued that the figures showcase the lack of capacity in NHS specialised gender identity services, with long waits for appointments deemed acutely stressful for patients, with suicide and self-harm a major risk.

Kirrin Medcalf, the head of trans inclusion at Stonewall, said: “Obviously the waits are really concerning. People should be held to an 18-week referral limit, that is what the NHS has said. When we are talking about a three-year wait, that is over 130 weeks, way over what it should be. Nottingham now have an average wait for a first appointment of two and a half years, according to their website. The NHS is not being funded properly at the moment and the GICs are generally not expanding at a rate which they are getting increase of patients. The impact on patients is hugely negative. It puts people’s lives on hold.”