LBC this morning

[starcrossedseahorse]

Anyone listening to Nick Ferrari this morning? Tara Hewitt was on claiming that trans people are unable to access basic healthcare due to NHS staff being mean to them. Some spurious statistics were dragged out ( as usual) and Nick Ferrari mixed up gender and sex which made it difficult to follow if you are not clued up.

Dr Nic Williams was given less air time but did a good job focusing on the issues in hand and pointing out (again) the issues with reform to the GRA.

I have a really good feeling that Maria Miller is on the back foot and has been told to refocus the debate on to health matters and to kick the GRA reforms in to the long grass.

It feels like the start of it and for the first time in ages I feel hopeful.

Tara Hewitt providing training for health care professionals in North West. Tara Hewitt has been very influential in Greater Manchester.

'Trans People and Cancer Session'

Daily Mail interview:
'Transgender woman who has to shave twice a day claims the NHS is 'mucking around with people's lives' as she waits more than six months for hair removal surgery
Jessica Samson, 39, said it has been a battle to get a service she is entitled to
Funding was approved for the treatment in July but she is still waiting
She worries her experience is the 'tip of the iceberg' for transgender people'
(extract)
A transgender woman said she is regularly reduced to tears because the NHS is keeping her waiting for laser hair removal surgery.

Jessica Samson, 39, has to shave twice a day while she continues her more than six month wait for the permanent procedure.

She was approved for the treatment in July as the final stage of her gender reassignment but progress is slow, she said.

The NHS needs to 'realise they are mucking around with people's lives', according to the frustrated IT customer service worker.

After a complaint in December, Miss Sampson has now been offered a consultation appointment but worries her case is the 'tip of the iceberg'. (continues)
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6554031/Transgender-woman-shave-twice-day-says-NHS-mucking-peoples-lives.html

All medical training should forthwith contain a module on telepathy. Anything less is transphobic.

Saw an article about a transwoman who died in the States due to insisting to being given medication for female and not the male sex. It is very very dangerous. Wish I had saved the link

Talked to a GP recently who had supported a trans person right through transition. Had major discussion with the person advising them not to remove the previous sex information from their medical record (as apparently they can do in UK )Trans person agreed so that anyone treating them in future would have a true picture of the medical situation.

The medical situation is one of the biggest proofs that transwomen are not women. They can not be treated as a woman. It has been a neglected area until now and people are now waking up to it along with many of the other stand out issues such as sport!

I had an awful experience last year, a proper, clear cut, experience of disability discrimination by where I was singled out, excluded and humiliated, in front of an entire group, at a MH outpatient service, and this was after I’d been for an assessment where accommodating my disability had been discussed and assurances were given. You know what I did? I talked to the team leader. I told her what had happened and why I was so upset, and guess what? We had a calm discussion, and figured out a way to proceed. She talked to the member of staff concerned about why what had happened was completely unacceptable and we all just got on with it from there. No histrionics, no talk of hate speech or abuse, we just had a chat and sorted it out.

I’ve had a lifetime of dealing with these problems. Nobody has ever been expected to budge up to accommodate me and I’ve never expected to jump the queue because of it. Am I doing something wrong, or is it just that my disability isn’t woke enough?

I wouldn’t expect somebody to make adjustments for my disability if I hadn’t informed them of it beforehand, so why are people who are purposely withholding crucial information expecting HCPs to accommodate their special needs? People aren’t magic, apart from the brave and stunning people, obviously.

I’ve been waiting 6 months for my youngest to get scans and other tests, since she had two fits. My sympathy does not lie with someone who wants hair removal.

Most of the complaining in the Stonewall report seemed to be about waiting times! Such entitlement.

2018 NHS England and NHS Scotland
Analysis of public consultation on
proposed service specifications for
specialised Gender Identity Services
for Adults.

This document wil likely be the basis for many of the policy decisions and claims by TRAs:

www.engage.england.nhs.uk/survey/gender-identity-services-for-adults/user_uploads/report-independent-analysis-consultation-responses-gender-identity-service-specifications.pdf

Indeed OP. The health service is in a dire state for everyone.

We needed a paediatric referral a couple of years ago for DS2. After finally managing to get referred by the GP, we waited and waited. Months later I chased it up via the GP - to be given a phone number to ring - which took days to get through to.

When I eventually got through - I was told the waiting list was closed. For two years. They had no staff. The sort of situation you wouldn't believe could happen - until it happens to you.

We were very fortunate to be able to pay privately. Should transwomen trying to get rid of facial hair thinks they should be prioritised over children's healthcare services?

Plus - Do women who grow facial hair (eg from PCOS) get it removed by the NHS? (genuine question).

I was told that the varicose vein that developed during my last pregnancy was "cosmetic" and wouldn't be treated by the NHS - despite it causing me physical pain.

@ToeToToe I think it varies by ccg but under the one where I live, if I was biologically male but felt I was female, I would be entitled to six sessions of laser haor removal. As a biological woman who suffers with PCOS I am entitled to no hair removal sessions, which would be effective. I am entitled to anti-androgen treatments such as spiralactone which did not work for me and came with a wealth of side-effects.

Room101 - why am I not surprised at that.

The push for improved access to healthcare has been on the agenda for some time.
With regards children and young people, last year Mermaids parents have been supported by many TRA organisations and prominant individuals to challenge GIDS not just over the wait times (they seemed to seeking parity with medical referrals rather than mental health) but also to enable a speedier, more affirmative approach via private practice or GPs providing bridging prescriptions.

eg April 2018 R4 World at One
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3229756-Transgender-child-on-R4-World-at-One

Hi everyone. Here is a recording of the interview I did on LBC this morning. fairplayforwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lbc-030119-Miller-Announcement.m4a

Thank you for this Nic. And thank you for being there and arguing the case so clearly. You are amazing.

The smear test thing is because the screening database IT infrastructure is from the late 80s and can't function at the nuanced level of calling a sub-set of "male" for cervical screening, rather than all males.
A replacement system was in the process of being developed but issues with Capita have delayed it. Not sure whether the new system will account for this.
What happens now is the registered GP has to call the patient in, make sure they are called back appropriately and write to them with the result.
The various other computer systems really can't cope either. If you have systems set up e.g. to flag "M" for a pregnancy test to catch them being entered on the computer incorrectly, then switching it off for a small % of people allows mistakes for the vast majority that it's needed for. Not sure what we're supposed to do about it?

If trans people want to be offered sex-specific services by the nhs the obvious thing to do is to allow the nhs to record their sex

for DrW for being consistently brilliant

Not sure what we're supposed to do about it?

Medical records must retain the sex marker as this informs clinical decisions.
Humans can't change sex.

It must be possible to also record important information such as gender identity etc.
Medical records contain very sensitive information about many patients and there's no reason to think that the standards of confidentiality and respect can't be applied to people who are transgender.

Nick Ferrari needs his own thread on his over pronounced Mizzz whenever a woman is on and to me it sounds almost accusatory 'where is dad' whenever someone is struggling.

From my knowledge of certain NHS IT systems, recording both sex and gender would require additional fields to the front end systems and back end databases. Standardisation of specific fields would be required to ensure that data is recorded accurately (i.e. sex / gender into the appropriate field) and transferred between systems accordingly with appropriate mapping. Any errors could and would create even more problems.
Although I can see this has the potential to resolve some issues, it also opens up the possibility of people having sex / gender differences recorded when they don't have one, or being recorded the wrong way round.
There is no easy answer for accommodating the gender identity preferences within existing systems but it's something that needs sorting out. There are also massive problems in general with NHS IT systems so this is likely to be way down the list.