New gender clinic being investigated by CQC

[Clymene]

This is the one that's been set up by former Tavistock employees. 8 of them claim to be doctors but none are registered with the GMC.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12254933/Now-health-watchdog-probes-private-gender-clinic-set-staff-scandal-hit-Tavistock-unit.html

They need to shut this down.

So they are using the fact that people have doctorates in, well anything, to hoodwink the prospective customers that they have more medical personnel than they actually do.

And isn't it funny that when they can charge for the service suddenly someone needs at least six sessions!

is being probed for failing to register with health regulator, the Care Quality Commission

Which is exactly why HW ended up with a criminal conviction.

none are registered with the GMC

Where does it say that? You may well be right, but I just can't see it in the article.

See screenshot below

They all psychologists, nurses, psychotherapists and researchers (and admins).

https://www.genderplus.com/team

Who is supposed to be responsible for prescribing and monitoring of medications? The nurse consultant?

I’m aghast - I realise that many of the NHS adult gender clinics are staffed by clinical psychologists but as far as I was aware they all have psychiatrists (ie actual medical doctors who specialise in psychiatry) on staff too and the initial hormone prescriptions are instigated by endocrinologists who work in normal NHS endocrinology departments most of the working week?

I vaguely remember that there has been a push by some psychologists for the ability to prescribe certain meds - off to look that up (if I recall correctly one of the people on that staff list is involved).

The ones listed as Dr on the website are all clinical or counselling psychologists so they are regulated by the Health Care Professionals Council not the GMC. Clinical psychs aren’t able to prescribe medication though, so can’t see how they going to prescribe PBs or hormones with current set up. Seems to be a nurse involved but no endrocriniologist.

I hope this shoddy enterprise gets shut down as soon as possible.

GIDS refers to endocrinology, so they have either set up a relationship with an NHS endocrinology clinic (unlikely), or they are referring to the likes of that ghoulish cowboy, Webberley.

Deeply concerning however it's done.

Weren't there suspicions / accusations of buck-passing / plausible deniability regarding the Tavistock?

The psychologists sent patients to endocrinologists - so to any criticism or complaint the psychologists could say "The endocrinologists gave them the hormones, it wasn't our fault" and the endocrinologists could say "The psychologists told us to prescribe hormones, it wasn't our fault".

Isn't this just the same pattern repeated?

This was always going to happen without firm preventative action.

The Tavistock was shut down (eventually after repeated whistleblowing) for very good reason. The issue was not the building or the location, so permitting its staff to just relocate and set up again was obviously just going to recreate the problem all over again.

I wish the government would grow the guts to start dealing with this instead of repeatedly trying to tuck it under another bit of the rug and stave the next disaster off for another five minutes.

Yes you’re right there’s been a big push from a small group to get prescribing rights for psychologists. The main driver is Christina Richards who runs the adult gender clinic at Charing Cross. It’s an unpopular idea amongst the majority of clin psychs who see themselves as offering something different to psychiatry. And who also aren’t trained in biomedicine, most importantly.

Seems so

Here’s the stuff to do with the Memorandum of Understanding (on conversion therapy) and the push towards gender psychologists being able to prescribe as described by Transgender Trend:

https://www.transgendertrend.com/wp-content/uploads/woocommerce_uploads/2021/01/The-Evolution-of-the-Memorandum-of-Understanding-1.02-a6eaua.pdf

(I think I actually heard it from a podcast or YouTube with James Esses?)

and here’s an archive of the Gender Plus staff list, for posterity:

https://archive.is/RQb1u

That’s just an archive link - no paywall to get around, so hopefully MN staff will approve shortly!

Couple more relevant links (so as not to waste this extra post!)

https://www.madintheuk.com/2019/11/prescribing-rights-psychologists-cautious/

https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/MOU-dossier-0422-v7-Alice.pdf

Surely if we psychologists were granted prescribing rights it would be very limited to a few specific drugs.

Not all of them are 'former' Tavi employees. It's not uncommon for NHS employees to do private work as well as their NHS work, but I am surprised the Tavi don't view this work as a conflict of interest.
I presume they are being soft in light of wanting to keep staff until GIDS actually closes and enabling current staff to plan for the future.

I hope that when this is shut down the Irish branch is closed too, but I'm sceptical

Wouldn't it be ironic if, after years of women travelling across the Irish sea for abortions (which they should have been able to get at home), we may now see children crossing the Irish sea (even if only on Zoom) for puberty blockers.

Ireland really is years behind on this issue. And with every single politician and main stream reporter wearing rainbow-coloured blindfolds, it's going to take many years and an awful lot of lives ruined before we can unravel it.

Ah thanks. Sorry I misunderstood and thought there was an allegation that a doctor not registered with the GMC was practising medicine - that is a criminal offence so I was surprised that more action hadn't been taken already.

Regarding who is going to prescribe hormones their website says this...

Hormone Treatment
Post-assessment referral to our associated hormone clinic is available to those aged 16 years+.
The pathway is available to transgender and non-binary people in line with current NHS gender service specifications for adolescents and adults.
Hormone clinics will start in autumn 2023 and will be run as a hybrid offering of in-person and virtual appointments (consent must be taken in-person). The clinics are to be nurse led, run by our Nurse Consultant who has several years experience providing a similar service for the NHS' GIDS.

So presumably the Nurse Consultant will do the prescribing and monitoring?

Does anyone familiar with the field know how much training in endocrinology a Nurse Consultant prescribing hormones would have?

Not an endocrinologist but, in general, it's variable how much experience someone entitled 'nurse consultant' has. There is now a recognised set of competencies that must be achieved, as for all advanced nursing training, but this was not the case in the past, meaning that older nurse consultants vary in how they trained. Some will be extremely knowledgeable and experienced, but it does vary.

All nurses acting as independent prescribers will have completed a prescribing qualification.

All nurses acting as independent prescribers will have completed a prescribing qualification.

How detailed would the training be on things like risks and side-effects?

I thought this was interesting. Gender Plus has an owner.

"This Gids 2.0 clinic, run by previous Gids staff, is owned by one Ennrich Kritzinger. A devoutly religious man, he wrote a book called “Gender Plus”. It’s synopsis; below, I found fascinating. That is all…."

https://twitter.com/Isla_macy/status/1675438170253434881/photo/1

There is a screenshot of part of the book underneath.

My thought was Webberley. Part of the complaint about her set-up was a lack of proper psychological assessment, but she seems to have convinced the tribunal that it was enough to have access to the assessment carried out by GIDS in respect of at least one of the patients referred to.

GIDS seems to have given her a constant supply of children wanting hormone blockers or cross-sex hormones, who had already been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and had had a psychological assessment carried out by the NHS. The closure of GIDS is likely to have a significant impact on this part of her business.

Nurse prescribers can only prescribe within their scope of practice - so their specialty/ies. A sexual health nurse can't prescribe inhalers, for example.

Part of the prescribing qualification involves looking in depth into the relevant area of practice.

I'd be ever so interested to know what their insurers think of hormone prescribing mind. Especially by non-medical prescribers.