NHS England and Scottish government reject WPATH

[fromorbit]

Starting a new thread because this is potentially huge. A Mail report into NHS and medical use of WPATH standards in the UK and their reaction to the WPATH leak resulted in the following statements:

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: 'The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland do not have a working relationship with The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH). Specific questions related to its standards, or their development, should be directed to WPATH.
'It is not correct to say that NHS Gender Identity Services in Scotland follow WPATH V8 guidelines, a wide evidence base helps inform the delivery of NHS gender identity services in Scotland.'
A GMC spokesman said: 'As the regulator for individual doctors in the UK, we do not set clinical guidance. The guidance we provide is high-level and our Trans healthcare ethical hub shows ways in which our professional standards can be applied and signposts to resources.'
A spokesperson for the Royal College of Psychiatrists said: 'All our position statements are informed by a wide variety of sources, as well as our own member's professional expertise, and are not dictated by any single individual or organisation. Our position paper on transgender health was written in 2013 and we will update it following the outcome of the Cass Review.'
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'NHS England is transforming children's gender identity services, in line with the Cass Review recommendations, and moved away from WPATH guidelines more than 5 years ago.
'The Tavistock clinic will close at the end of March and the new services will open in April, with robust safeguarding processes in place and staffed by experts in paediatric safeguarding.'
An NHS England spokesperson said: 'The NHS has well-established methods and processes in place to enable the development of policies and specifications for NHS gender services in line with clinical evidence and expertise.
'While we are aware of WPATH standards, we are clear that these do not determine NHS policy.'
The BMA was approached for comment.

Full article:

How influential trans health doctors and activists have secretly shaped NHS policies for more than a decade
NHS used controversial WPATH Standards of Care documents in trans policies
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13168281/INFLUENTIAL-transgender-health-doctors-activists-shape-NHS-policies.html

Sex Matters following up on this on twitter.

WPATH’s influence is all over the NHS

- 2013 govt guide to gender dysphoria services informed by WPATH SOC
- Bernadette Wren, Director at the Tavi told parliament treatment protocols are based on WPATH "almost universally observed in Europe.”
- NHS’s Contract for GIDS repeatedly refers to WPATH SOC up to 2024
- Sandyford clinic in Scotland tells adult patients: “Your treatment will be monitored & run in accordance w WPATH SOC ”
- @gmcuk @TheBMA @rcpsych informed by WPATH standards
-Gendered Intelligence, Mermaids, Stonewall and GIRES promote WPATH as the only acceptable approach.

Read our dossier on the influence of #WPATH in the UK

https://sex-matters.org/posts/publications/wpath-in-the-uk/…

And then read the #WPATHfiles

https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/wpath-files

The card tower is tottering we all need to help give it a push.

Write to your MP ask for their reaction.
Write to your local NHS Trust.
If your local council and school is pushing gender ideology demand they react to WPATH leaks.
The position in Scotland makes even less SENSE than ever. In reality WPATH is being enforced in Sandyford, but the government is actually against it now. ????
No-one even knows what is going in Wales and Northern Ireland, we need to go after them because the media doesn't care.
There is going to be a general election - a lot of parties need to actually make it clear whether they are for or against WPATH medical experiments on kids. That is on us to ask the questions in our constituency.

We need to get this out there. The card tower will come down, but the more we push the more lives we can stop from being ruined, and the quicker we can get to a reality where lots of sensible people will be saying Mumsnet and JKR were right ALL along. If we don't do it now guess what Putin, Trump and assorted other sexist pigs will be claiming the credit for knocking the tower down in a few years time and will be using the kudos to send us all back to the stone age.

Why has it taken this long, and for a third party to investigate the value of what WPATH was saying for the NHS to disavow them?

Why didn't their internal ethics and clinical review procedures pick up on it?

Why did they blindly follow activists who were chasing the money?

Who other areas of health care are similar issues happening within the NHS?

What are the liability implications for the NHS for anyone previously treated under WPATH pathways?

Will there be an internal investigation into why the NHS has got this so badly wrong?

@fromorbit
Thank you so much for this!

It is not correct to say that NHS Gender Identity Services in Scotland follow WPATH V8 guidelines, a wide evidence base helps inform the delivery of NHS gender identity services in Scotland

NHS Scotland needs to tell the staff at the Sandyford clinic about this!

The Tavistock clinic will close at the end of March and the new services will open in April, with robust safeguarding processes in place and staffed by experts in paediatric safeguarding

Am I correct in thinking that the replacement for the Tavistock is being staffed by the same clinicians who work at the Tavi? You know, the ones who believe in affirmation led treatment?

In the meantime, gender non conforming children are still getting puberty blockers then cross sex hormones, are still being told they can have mastectomies, are still ending up impotent, are still being led to believe that they can somehow miraculously change sex.

The statement for NHS Scotland is verbatim the same as they've put out before. They say they don't base treatment on WPATH guidelines/SOC, but the refer to them and there are still references to them in NHS docs and online.

Yeah the "Not us, guv" response is not going to wash.

SoC8 - and I use the term "standards" very loosely is a sh*t show but then, all of their standards have been driven by the subjective wants of a bunch of activists pretending to be experts.

I think we should be pushing each organisation that states they've not been influenced by WPATH to evidence their claims.

What research? By whom?

I'll wait.

https://forwomen.scot/16/11/2022/spath/

Some history of 'SPATH' and the fucking mess that is NHS Scotland's gender pathway.

Isn't there also significant overlap between WPATH members and the architects of the MoU (memorandum of understanding)? That policy forces counsellors and psychotherapists to adhere to "affirmation-only" for vulnerable clients (adults and children) experiencing gender incongruence. Those same people consider ethical exploratory therapy "conversion therapy" - and the punishment will be jail time, if the conversion therapy bill goes through (which it most certainly will under Labour). Good luck getting a therapist after that. Nobody sane will go near this issue.

The rotten roots of this ideology run deep.

As for writing to MP, I'll get my words in a tangle over this, does anyone do templates for this sort of thing? I'm less familiar with wpath than other aspects of the matter.

This is NHS Forth Valley's current webpage for 'gender reassignment':

https://nhsforthvalley.com/health-services/az-of-services/transexual-and-sex-change/

'NHS Forth Valley follows the guidance set out in the Gender Reassignment Protocol for Scotland. This protocol incorporates recommendations from the 7th edition of The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care, September 2011.'

It's archived.

I mean, if you google 'WPATH' and NHS Scotland many results pop up. WPATH guidelines are referred to and embedded throughout all their 'gender' treatment. This is what it's all based on. There is no evidence. There is no other 'authority'.

So once the penny dropped that this organisation included some very very unsavoury people, and the NHS had inadvertently hosted a link to CSA containing 'Eunuch Archive' because they posted WPATH SOC, the NHS tried to say they weren't using WPATH guidelines anymore. But there remain references all over the place.

The truth is, I don't think there's any way they can remove all references to WPATH guidelines without the whole edifice of 'gender affirming care' crumbling. Becuase this is what it's been built on. Activists using this fabricated bullshit organisation to push unevidenced, risky, potentially damaging 'healthcare'.

Sorry, I don't want to make this all about NHS Scotland, it's just that I feel i have a better awareness of that issue than NHS England.

Given that Walter Pierre Bouman and Jon Arcelus are both NHS England employees, I've no doubt there are similar issues in E&W.

https://www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/meet-the-team-gender/

For example, here's a list of research papers published by NHS staff working at NCFTH.

Note 'International Journal of Transgender Health', edited by Walter P Boumann, journal of WPATH.

https://ncth.nhs.uk/research-papers

NHS bosses and pesky women right now. Live footage

NHS Scotland's gender services are based on a 2012 Gender Reassignment Protocol, which is easily downloadable if you google those terms.

There was a proposal in the past couple of years to update this, but as far as I can tell that hasn't yet happened. Happy to be corrected! The Scotgov website/s are awful to navigate, it could be I've just not found the updated Protocol.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-gender-identity-services-strategic-action-framework-2022-2024/documents/

'Gender Reassignment Protocol January 2012

'The protocol incorporates recommendations
from the 7th edition of The World Professional Association for
Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care, September
2011.'
...
7
Appendix 3 – Treatment criteria
Within this section you will find information on criteria for the referral and prescription of hormone therapy (including hormone management) and surgical procedures. Further more detailed information and evidence-based clinical guidance can also be found in The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual,
Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People, 7 th Version (September 2011)'
...
'Hormone Therapy
Criteria for the prescription of hormone therapy
The GIC must first ensure patients meet the following eligibility and readiness criteria as adapted from the WPATH Standards of Care 6 before taking the decision to refer the appropriate clinician prescription of hormones'

Here's a 2017 Report

Scottish Public Health Network (ScotPHN)
Health Care Needs Assessment of Gender Identity Services

'Guidelines

The principal guideline identified was by the World Professional Association for
Transgender Health (WPATH), which publishes standards of care for the health of
transgender people(1). This guideline outlines clinical care and interventions to be offered to transgender people, including providing criteria for hormone treatment and surgery, and outlining the role and competencies for mental health professionals. The most recent version of this guidance (WPATH7) advocates a flexible approach to care and states that gender nonconformity should not be seen as a pathological process, and was the first set of standards to explicitly state there should be access for non-binary individuals. However, as yet there is no international guidance on how to diagnose non-binary people with gender dysphoria, or indeed how to assess people for the new diagnosis of gender dysphoria rather than the old diagnosis of transsexualism.

A contrast to the WPATH approach is outlined by Cavanaugh et al, who support the use of an informed consent model of care where transgender people have the right to choose their own treatments without needing input from a mental health professional (78). They state that the WPATH guidelines are not flexible enough and rely upon mental health assessments, whereas the informed consent model could provide better care through taking a collaborative approach where a mental health professional does not make decisions about treatment. A variety of other guidelines on providing healthcare for trans people were identified(79)(80)(81).

In a useful review of transgender healthcare, Wylie et al advocate the use of the
WPATH guidelines (although it is noted that the number of the authors are on WPATH) (12). In this review they highlight that most healthcare for trans people can be provided in primary care. Further, they outline three important themes in the literature on models of care for transgender people - the leadership role of the trans community, need for multidisciplinary services, and use of partnerships. In Scotland, the 2012 gender reassignment protocol provides the main source of guidance on interventions for changing gender and is based on the WPATH approach(13).'

If the NHS are no longer basing treatment guidance on WPATH, what has replaced it?

'NGICNS and NHS National Services Scotland are now working to review and update this clinical protocol. An updated GRP will be delivered in summer 2022. '

I don't think it ever was, was it? I wonder if that's because without WPATH SoC there is no 'framework' to base it on.

They can deny, pretend, dissemble or lie - but they've now been found out.
World wide children have been harmed by a combination of queer theory activism, predatory adults and deeply dangerous doctors and others who have abandoned fundamental medical ethics.

Ah, here's an update from late last year.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-gender-identity-healthcare-reference-group-update-winter-2023-to-2024/pages/work-taking-place/

'Updating the 2012 Gender Reassignment Protocol

In 2012, the Scottish Government published the Gender Reassignment Protocol (GRP), one of the first of its kind in the world, which aimed to improve and standardise gender reassignment clinical pathways in NHS Scotland.
NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) provides advice and services to the rest of NHS Scotland. NSS’s National Services Division (NSD) supports the planning, commissioning and coordinating of high-quality, person-centred specialist services, networks and screening programmes.
In 2021, the Chief Medical Officer wrote to the NSD, proposing a review and update of the 2012 GRP. A draft update has now been submitted by NSD to the Scottish Government for consideration. The Scottish Government has agreed with NSD on further work which is required to take place prior to publication of a revised protocol. This work is being undertaken collaboratively with the Scottish Government.'

For discussion of the actual WPATH leak document, there is also this thread that pulls together reaction to it.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5021764-wpath-leaks?page=1

Thanks fromorbit. This does have the potential to be a big discussion. We knew about NHS England and Dr Cass but NHS Scotland seems a very curated answer meant to obscure the reality that they don’t want to admit.

Minutes of last meeting. I see Dr Cass was there and gave a presentation. Attended by various activists, including a rep from LGBTYS.

'Dr Cass noted discussions between Scottish Government/NHS Scotland and NHS England were ongoing regarding its announced puberty hormone suppression study in children and young people as a treatment option for gender dysphoria. '

https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-gender-identity-healthcare-reference-group-minutes-december-2023/

Apologies for all the posts, I wanted to ascertain how mch WPATH has informed 'gender' care in Scotland.

Looks like 'all of it' is the answer.

A segment at the start of a recent Gender: A Wider lens about where WPATH came from:

s

(Time stamped to run from the 7 and a half minutes point.)

Yes, this is huge.

So this page:

https://www.cntw.nhs.uk/services/northern-region-gender-dysphoria-service-specialist-service-walkergate-park/information-for-professionals/

Links directly to the WPATH SoC 8. Which does include the Eunuch gender links that meant NHS Scotland had to report/refer themself to Police Scotland. The difference, I suppose, that the SoC 8 were directly uploaded/embedded onto an NHS website, whereas here the NHS are merely linking to the SoC that contain the links to the Eunuch Archive with the CSA material.