Two year waiting times for NHS gender identity clinics, amid unprecented demand

Record demand for help from NHS gender identity clinics has seen waiting times reach more than two years , an investigation has found.

Services said an “unprecedented rise in referrals” meant the time to see a specialist had doubled within a year at Britain’s main centre.

The figures show more than 5,700 people waiting for a first appointment at Tavistock and Portman Foundation Trust, an all-time high. Less than a year ago, its average waiting time was just over 12 months.

But the trust said its adult gender identity clinic is now seeing patients referred to them for a first appointment back in August 2017.

Other specialists said they were receiving four times as many referrals as they could cope with.

Four of the six NHS providers of gender identity services in England shared their data with Health Service Journal.

The country’s largest provider of services, Tavistock and Portman Foundation Trust, said its waiting list for a first appointment, currently at 5,717, “is at an all-time high”.

The trust said it had seen an “unprecedented rise in referrals” to its adult gender identity clinic in the last year.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation trust said its average waiting time for gender identity services is now in excess of two and a half years, with more than 2,000 patients on its waiting list.

Leeds and York Partnership Foundation trust, which has a waiting list of 1,712, said patients are currently waiting around two and half years for a first appointment. It said there were too few specialists in the field and insufficient funding.

Dr Hercules Eli Joubert, lead clinician and consultant psychologist for Leeds and York Partnership Foundation trust, said: “The way these services have been set up and therefore continue to be funded reflect a time when there was a lesser demand for them. “We are about four times oversubscribed in terms of what we are funded for and the referrals we receive. I don’t think NHS England is unaware of this and to my knowledge are doing everything they can to try and address it, but we have to also be realistic that this is not the only kind of service that is in need and there is only so much money that can go around.

He said the situation was “very difficult” for patients and “frustrating” for clinical teams. “On the other hand people don’t need permission from us to live in their preferred gender,” he added.  “There is opportunity for them to start their social gender transitioning before they’re seen by us.”

Sheffield Health and Social Care Foundation trust was the only trust to say its average waiting time has reduced. It’s waiting time in 2018/19 was 46 weeks, compared with 49 weeks in 2017/18.

NHS England, which commissions the services centrally, said the budget for children’s and adults gender identity services increased to £38m in 2019-20, compared to £34m the previous year.

Earlier this year, they sought bids for an expansion in both surgical and non-surgical adult gender dysphoria services. An NHS England spokesman said: “Demand for gender identity services continues to rise as more people feel able to come forward for support and treatment, and we’ve increased investment to respond to the rising demand for these services, with staff working hard to reduce waiting times for patients.”