Some GPs are refusing to treat patients with gender dysphoria, according to a leading psychiatrist today.
As many as 20% of GPs will not take responsibility for hormone treatment for these patients, according to Dr James Barrett, president of the British Association of Gender Identify Specialists and a psychiatrist in London.
Writing in The BMJ, he says some 5,000 people are on waiting lists for the UK’s 11 NHS gender identify clinics.
In many cases GPs are simply concerned about the cost – but there is also evidence that some doctors discriminate against these patients, he alleges.
He quotes one doctor as saying: “we are trained to treat illnesses, not to change nature."
According to Dr Barrett, patients can be treated inappropriately by their GPs for years after undergoing gender reassignment procedures.
He writes: "Yet patients are still often, offensively, referred to by their old title or legal sex, sometimes years after hormone treatment or gender reassignment surgery.”
He refers to General Medical Council guidance that this is not a conscience issue for doctors – and that doctors who feel they lack experience should work with gender identity clinics.
He writes: “People with gender dysphoria aren’t freaks. They are teachers and accountants, police officers and doctors, parents and taxpayers, and – importantly – patients as deserving of respect and decent, routine NHS care as anyone else.
"It’s about time they started getting exactly that.”
Doctors are failing to help people with gender dysphoria BMJ 31 March 2016 [abstract]
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