Campaigners demand ‘Scottish Tavistock’ be shut down

NHS Scotland’s gender clinic for children should be closed, campaigners have said.

The calls follow the announcement that the Tavistock gender clinic in England will close next spring, after the independent Cass Review’s interim report found it was not a “safe or viable long-term option”.

Former Tavistock clinician Dr David Bell and For Women Scotland (FWS) have called for the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Sandyford clinic to be shut down.

‘Inappropriate’

The campaigners have raised concerns about the use of puberty-blocking drugs and ‘sex swap’ surgeries by vulnerable youngsters.

Sinead Watson, 31, who started detransitioning in 2019, called for the closure of the Sandyford clinic, where she was ‘treated’ after referring herself at the age of 24.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Bell warned that the SNP Government’s affirming stance on gender transition was “likely to make it more difficult for them to see the damage that is being done to children by inappropriate, experimental treatment”.

FWS Director Marion Calder said: “We have no idea about the long-term outcomes of these drugs on young people. The Scottish government is completely ignoring any harms these drugs might cause.”

Gender self-ID

The Scottish Government wants to make it much easier for people to change their legal sex based on self-declaration.

Proposals seek to sweep away current safeguards – removing the need for any medical evidence, reducing the two-year waiting period to three months and even extending sex swaps to 16-year-olds.

A Scottish Government spokesman told The Times: “We will closely consider the findings of the Cass Review within the context of NHS Scotland services”.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “The Sandyford clinic will continue to offer a range of gender services in line with national frameworks.”