Former medical staff at the scandal-hit Tavistock gender centre are pushing puberty blockers and trans surgery for gender-confused teens at a new private clinic.
Gender Plus offers onward referrals for children, adolescents and adults to a surgical team or, for over 16s, an “associated hormone clinic”.
All three consultants at Gender Plus – Dr Aidan Kelly, Dr Claudia Zitz and Paul Carruthers – previously worked at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).
Controversial
The business’s website states: “Our team are experts in the field (many have worked for several years in NHS gender services) and feel passionately about the rights of the transgender and non-binary population to access appropriate care.”
From autumn 2023, puberty-blocking drugs will be available to those aged 16+ from ‘hormone clinics’ run by Gender Plus nurse Paul Carruthers, who, it says, “has several years’ experience providing a similar service for the NHS’ GIDS”.
“Our practice”, Gender Plus claims, “is guided by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care and NHS Service Specifications for Gender Services”.
Last year, WPATH – a controversial international pro-trans group – removed age recommendations for sex swap drugs and surgery from its ‘best practice’ guidelines.
NHS interim guidelines
NHS England recently announced its intention to end the routine prescribing of puberty blocking drugs for gender-confused children. It would continue for clinical trials only.
Following the scheduled closure of GIDS next year, two new regional hubs are set to open, operating under interim specifications informed by a review led by Dr Hilary Cass.
The guidance says policies at the hubs “should be mindful” that confusion around feelings about gender “may be a transient phase” and the “primary intervention” for gender-confused children should be through “psychological” support.
In its response to The Daily Telegraph, Gender Plus claimed: “We are aware and up-to-date with the recent NHS England service specifications.”
‘Worrying’
But psychotherapist Marcus Evans, who resigned in 2019 as a Governor of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust over concerns about GIDS, feared clinics like Gender Plus could “bypass” Cass review recommendations.
He said: “If they are not using the same checks and balances that are being introduced in the NHS, then this is a worrying development.
“Medicine by and large works by consensus, and it is irresponsible to ignore the concerns that are being raised about hormone treatment.”
Stephanie Davies-Arai, Director of the campaign group Transgender Trend, said it was “worrying that staff from a failed service have set up a private practice” and she urged the NHS to “investigate these private clinics”.
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