News on the Future of Healthcare for Trans people in the UK
This PAGE CONTENTS: NEWS in reverse date order, most recent first
November 2011: News on the Commissioning of transgender related Health Care
It is now known that trans health care funding for adults is to come under the auspices of the 10 Regional Specialised Services Commissioning groups, which sit as part of the National Specialised Services Commissioning Group.
Adults with GID, at some point in the near'ish future, will fall under the framework for mental health- see http://www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/. I suspect that is why the recent EHRC report (see below***) into Trans health care provision is such a cursory and ill-informed affair. It is highly likely the EHRC know that the funding for Commissioning will leave the PCTs (which will become defunct), and a whole new system will take its place. As such they probably see no reason to kick up a fuss and start challenging the PCTs current provision (or lack of it) now.
What this will mean in reality for trans people is hard to know, as nobody yet knows when the Regional Specialised Services Commissioning groups will pick up the proposed duties.
At the moment the service for children and adolescents is only commissioned nationally rather than regionally, and is likely to stay that way. You can see the Service Specification and Standards for the Gender Identity Development Service (for children & adolescents) at http://www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/document/10330 . Interestingly they commissioned 820 new outpatient attendances in 2009/10 – that is a lot of children and young people.
You can also find the Specialised Services 'National Definitions Sets', at http://www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/info/specialised-services-national-definitions.
This provides details which cover 34 separate areas of definition i.e. the definition of those patient matters which require specialised commissioning. You can find Gender Dysphoria adult services in the Definition No. 22: Specialised mental health services (all ages), on page 12. Childrens GID services are defined under Definition No. 23: Specialised services for children.
These are short guidance and generally not a very interesting read, saying very little that is new. But they do have one or two pointers we may be able to use to the advantage of trans people in the future. For example, Def. 22 includes: "Treatment pathways for gender dysphoria are based on the ‘Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association’s Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders". I think many trans folk might hope that will mean a better service in the future than the current 'at the Doctors' and PCT's whim' system that we curently to have. [SW]
October 2011: EHRC publish Report on Transgender Health Care: - a waste of time?