September 2017 Times article by Andrew Gilligan:
"GP gave child, 12, sex change drug
The medical regulator has launched an inquiry into a doctor who gave out hormones that could leave girls infertile"
(extracts)
"Cross-sex hormone treatment, which Webberley has prescribed for a number of child patients, causes permanent body changes and compromises fertility. NHS guidelines do not allow it for children.
After complaints by two NHS consultants, the General Medical Council, the doctors’ disciplinary body, has begun an investigation into Webberley and imposed an order that prevents her from treating transgender patients unsupervised.
Last night she said the restriction “stops me” but was not a finding of fault.
“It’s a temporary thing while they’re investigating,” she said and blamed the inquiry on a “mafia” of consultants.
Webberley, who charges between £75 and £150 an hour, said she catered for children who had been denied sex- change treatment on the NHS and were “screaming in agony at being stuck in a puberty that isn’t right for them”.
She said she had given cross-sex hormones to four child patients. “Giving it at 12 is a very unusual situation — but if you met that child, you would say, ‘Oh my goodness, I understand that now,’” she said. (continues)
Dr Polly Carmichael, of England’s only NHS gender identity clinic for children at the Tavistock Centre in north London, said: “We are talking about very young people and one of the things about young people is that their thinking changes.
“Really having consent is about the ability to fully weigh up all the options and the risks. Given the irreversibility of some of the steps, we need to be careful.”
For under-16s seeking to change sex, the NHS can prescribe “blockers” that prevent development in puberty. Carmichael said most of her clinic’s child patients did not decide to go on blockers or go on to have cross-sex hormone therapy at 16.
Webberley said: “To keep [children] pre-pubertal until they’re 16 is just killing for them, literally, because they do harm themselves.” (continues)
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gp-gave-child-12-sex-change-drug-qtbqqsthz
I wonder if Helen Webberley sees James Barrett as part of her alleged 'mafia' of consultants?