UK transgender treatment centre urged to speed up its controversial service
by Ann Farmer, MercatorNet:
The controversial Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) operated by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has been rated as “inadequate” by government inspectors — another blow to the beleaguered service that has been struggling under the burden of a high resignation rate, public criticism and legal action.
The inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) criticised the service, based at a Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust site, for having over 4,600 children on its waiting list — some of them waiting more than two years for a first appointment. The Trust, which runs the UK’s only gender-identity development service for children, has been told it must significantly improve its service and waiting times as staff struggle to manage risks to patients. This is ironic given that the Tavistock and Portman trust mental health service has been criticised for providing a treatment that seriously damages children’s mental health.
Instead of addressing the issue arising from their perception that they might have been born into the wrong body — encouraged by the internet and uncritical TV programs on the subject — children are put on the pathway of cross-sex hormones and surgical interventions that are irreversible, rendering them sterile and often miserable.
In reality the biggest risk these children face is getting the treatment they seek — cross-sex hormones and “cosmetic” surgery to align their bodies with their mental self image. It can be argued that making them wait is actually doing them a favour, sparing them from irreversible changes that may only make their mental health worse.
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