Yet we’ve still got people over here in the UK banging the “lifesaving treatment” drum about puberty blockers - and always the anguished!photo with articles, the exact sort that used to reserved for things about mental health, particularly eating disorders and self-harm… 🤨
Am attaching screenshots of the Belfast Telegraph’s twitter feed - two (paywalled, or I’d link them) articles about trans healthcare in NI.
The exclusive they’re running on children making up 27% of the 950 people referred to the two specialist transgender services there are in NI insists that the Excessive waiting list for specialist treatment [is] ‘blocking access to key medication‘ - it is possible they’re referring to adults (though “key” might be open to dispute even then) but it doesn’t sound like it.
Frustratingly, the second article opens by claiming “almost all” of said 950 people referred since 2017 are still on waiting lists - & then vanishes behind the paywall. Bit vague that, “almost all” 🤔
I’d be very keen to know if either or both of those centres closed during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic/were “only” offering therapy & no medication as endocrinologists were needed elsewhere. How many people have moved from one service to the other (potentially without being seen) because they turned 18? Are they including internal waiting lists (ie the clinics aren’t handing out drugs like sweeties)?
The other thing is, waiting lists in Northern Ireland are scandalously long. They only provide the data as “over 52 weeks” so it’s anybody’s guess how long that stretches to. And people actually will be permanently disabled & some will die because that neuro/gynae/rheumatology issue really couldn’t wait that long. And people[‘s communities] aren’t going to be able to get together the money to go private in Europe somewhere as they have done for years when they’re [all] choosing between heating & eating.
Trans people absolutely have the right to good quality healthcare delivered in a timely fashion. But so do cancer patients & there’s a really REALLY good reason their referral to treatment target is 62 days. Oh & want to guess which group of people are at increased risk of suicide? (Obviously study is England-only, but findings still relevant here.)
Oh, I just looked up the journalist (Brett Campbell) & he’s clearly furious - over on his personal Twitter account - about young people being denied hormone medication they are entitled to. I’m also not sure what he thinks should have happened here - Trans and non-binary patients added to excessive waiting lists currently 5 years and 4 months. If you want treatment, you go on the waiting list. Presumably he was trying to convey outrage about the length of the waiting lists, but that didn’t really come across.
Helpfully, he’s also explained (some of) what’s happened, though he ALSO says the Trust admitted “failing patients”, which it did not do in the [part of the??? 🤷🏻♀️] apology he posted. That said, the text he posted as an image did not include the following either:
It blames ‘unprecedented demand’ for its adult service and has ‘strongly recommended all patients to consider carefully before taking any treatment or medication privately’.
I am genuinely not sure if he means his tweet about “well they CLAIM it’s not a lack of investment” to sound so… tinfoily… but yeah… Have attached the explanation he posted himself from the Trust about the fact they knew they couldn’t safely transition children into adult services so had to stop prescribing for them; & the bit about literally nobody in NI being willing to work there that is an almighty red flag.
Will be interesting to see what changes will be made to services following the review that began in 2019; especially after what’s come out about the Tavistock & what’s going on in Europe.