GPs will be paid for trans hormone prescriptions
by Kat Lay, The Times:
Family doctors are to be paid for prescribing hormones to transgender patients, in the first scheme of its kind in the UK.
Under the programme, which was launched yesterday, GPs in Sussex will get £178 a year for every adult to whom they prescribe “cross sex hormone therapy”. They will also be able to claim an extra £91 a year for providing an annual health check to a transgender, non-binary or intersex (TNBI) patient.
The scheme, which also requires staff to take training in transgender healthcare, is aimed at reducing the high rates of long-term physical and mental health problems in TNBI patients and improve their low levels of satisfaction with NHS care. Trans rights campaigners welcomed the programme. Patients referred to gender identity clinics (GICs) face waits of years, after referrals soared 240 per cent in five years.
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in northwest London is offering first appointments to people who were referred in December 2017.
Concerns were raised, however, that medicines could be provided without appropriate psychological support for patients and add to pressure on GPs.
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