Today, it was revealed that under official trans-care guidelines, police may be notified when children acquire puberty blockers online.
Children who receive the controversial medications privately may pose a risk to their safety, according to NHS England guidance that has been leaked.
This is analogous to how NHS personnel respond to possible instances of child abuse or neglect.
If medical professionals suspect that a kid is in danger, they will alert social services and the police.
In recent weeks, the treatment of children with gender dysphoria in the United Kingdom has come under severe scrutiny in the aftermath of various scandals involving the trans youth organization Mermaids.
It also follows the announcement by NHS England that it would close the controversial Tavistock clinic’s gender care service for children, which had been deemed hazardous, with other mental health issues being ‘overshadowed’ by gender identity treatment.
It will instead be contracted out to two other facilities, one in London and the other in the North West.
The clinics, scheduled to begin in the spring, would operate by the new draught guidelines that were disclosed today.
The guidelines, which were seen by Reuters, specify that if an NHS practitioner working in gender care determines that a patient should not be taking puberty blockers or hormone therapy bought privately, they can encourage the patient’s physician to commence “safeguarding practices.”
The plan does not specify why safeguarding measures will be implemented or what they will entail.
In cases when NHS personnel fear a child is being abused or neglected, however, comparable safeguarding teams, which may include police and social services personnel, are currently deployed.
The guidelines are part of a review of NHS treatment for young people with gender dysphoria, the sense that their biological sex does not correspond to their gender identity.
Some specialists have criticized the present strategy, stating that it rushes people into medicine.
In addition, it has been criticized by patients who have complained that the service is unable to fulfill the rapidly expanding demand, with some patients on the waiting list for nearly four years.
This lengthy wait for treatment has led some adolescents to seek gender-specific medications from unregulated online pharmacies or private sources.
These include drugs such as puberty blockers or hormone therapy for older children that allow them to develop the secondary sexual features associated with their gender identity.
It has enabled businesses to develop, such as the controversial GenderGP, a private supplier of therapies for transgender patients who have administered these drugs to hundreds of children.
The NHS had previously simply stated that it “highly discouraged” anyone from purchasing gender-affirming drugs online from non-UK-regulated suppliers.
Other proposals in the draught state that only NHS professionals should be able to refer youth for gender care, that gender care clinic teams should have a broader range of professional expertise, and that there should be meetings between the referring staff and the clinic to determine if they are the optimal treatment option.
A spokeswoman for the NHS declined to comment on the leaked draught guidelines or indicate when a finalized and more comprehensive version will be released.
Cleo Madeleine, a representative for the national transgender charity Gendered Intelligence, stated that while they did not wish to comment directly on the draught text, the current system was in severe need of modification.
“It is vital that the new services genuinely facilitate access to treatment and assistance, as opposed to leaving young people and their families in limbo,” she said.
The sole gender care clinic for children in England is the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which declined to comment on the proposed changes.
NHS England will build two additional services for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria when GIDS closes in the spring, one in London and one in the North West.
A partnership between Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and Evelina London Children’s Hospital will operate the London service.
In the North West, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital will collaborate to provide the service.
After these initial two, six, or seven additional such services could be created in different regions of the nation.
Current GIDS patients will continue to receive care from the program until early next year when their care will be transferred to the new operators.
According to NHS data, referrals to Tavistock have increased to over 5,000 patients in the most recent fiscal year, up from 210 a decade ago.
Currently, the wait time for gender care experts is approximately three years.
Dr. Hilary Cass, a senior pediatrician, stated that the gender clinic was ‘not a safe or practical long-term alternative’, prompting the closure of GIDS.
She discovered that when children were referred to Tavistock, gender identity issues “overshadowed” other mental health concerns.
Former patients who felt they weren’t sufficiently challenged accused the clinic of pushing children onto puberty-blocking medications.
Dr. Cass has called for “rapid” drug development after discovering “insufficient proof” of their advantages.
