TransActual is deeply concerned by the decision to pause gender affirming surgeries for people referred via the Welsh Gender Service (WGS). Trans people using their service are now left without any NHS pathway to receiving the surgical care they need, in an extraordinary violation of NHS Wales’ duties as a provider of care.
The Welsh Gender Service has, we understand, been barred from making any new surgical referrals and hospitals have been told not to operate on NHS Wales patients while an independent clinical review takes place. This includes some who have already been admitted to hospital who are now facing last minute cancellations, despite having been accepted as suitable for surgery by their provider. This decision was made by the NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee (NWJCC) and is having a cruel impact on trans people awaiting surgery.
This decision appears based on the assumption that WGS referring a greater number of patients than their English counterparts must be indicative of a problem – before any real investigation has taken place, and despite the obvious failures in the English provision of transition care. Given the predictable harms this will cause, and in the absence of any better justification, it’s difficult to understand this as anything other than caving to ideological pressure.
Making this harmful decision without extremely compelling evidence to support it is an appalling failure of governance and demonstrates a clear disregard for trans patients’ wellbeing. This fits a familiar pattern of political attacks on trans healthcare being camouflaged in ‘concerns’ that demonise our healthcare, holding it to standards not applied to other areas of medicine. We are immediately raising our objections with NHS Wales and the Welsh Government to demand that they reinstate access to the surgeries that WGS’s service users need and deserve.
We know that this will be especially upsetting news for those impacted by the decision. If you need any support during this time, there are organisations that can help:
- Umbrella Cymru – umbrellacymru.co.uk
- Switchboard – switchboard.lgbt
- Samaritans – Samaritans.org
If you have any questions about your care, or for additional support, contact Cav.Concerns@wales.nhs.uk
We, along with Welsh LGBTQ+ organisations and our allies, will be pushing back against this awful decision and will share more soon. NHS Wales must do better than this.