Only NHS Clinic Providing Gender Identity Services for Young People Shutting Down; ‘Not Safe’ for Children

 

After decades of shaking my fist and barking at the moon, I’ve concluded that there is something, even if just one thing, to be said for the NHS and its laughable paucity of actual medical services.  I say this as a person whose brother-in-law is still waiting, a full year after a serious medical episode, for any sort of definitive diagnosis.  It took over six months for him to get an MRI at what seems to be the Scottish Highlands’ only imaging center–a day’s trip from his home–and a further month after that for a (telephone) conversation with the consultant, at which he was given the result.  The community hospital closest to my sister and her husband boasts, on its little web page, that it “[has] an X-ray machine.”

The good thing (I think)  that can be said in favor of this almost criminal scarcity of medical resources in a first-world country is that a diligent researcher who’s after the truth of the matter, should find it relatively easy to determine, to describe, and to address.  After all, there really aren’t that many places to go looking for it.

Such seems to be the case with the interim report of the  Cass Review, an independent investigation being led by Dr. Hilary Cass, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and one which was commissioned by the NHS itself  to explore and “to make recommendations on the services provided to children and young people exploring their gender identity.”

The effect of the interim report–which was published in April–is that the only clinic providing “gender identity services” to young people in the entire UK will, in a few more months, be shut down.

Some choice morsels from the Telegraph article:

NHS England will move young people who believe that they are trans into regional centres which will take a more “holistic” approach to treatment and look at other mental health or medical issues they may have.

… [the] Cass Review, which warned that medics in the Tavistock had felt “under pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach” to gender identity rather than going through the normal process of clinic assessment with young people.

NHS England have also committed to follow Dr Cass’s recommendation that they carry out “rapid” research on the use of puberty blockers by young people after it was noted there is currently “insufficient evidence” on their impact.

There were concerns over a sharp rise in referrals to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust – over 5,000 in 2021/2 compared to 250 a decade earlier and long waiting lists.

The article goes on to note that NHS officials have also noted that “significant numbers” of children presenting as trans seem to have “neurodiversity and other mental health needs and risky behaviors which…need to be better understood.”

The review was ordered due to fears that “doctors were too quick to affirm a child’s new identity without looking at other mental health or medical issues,” and was also specifically charged with investigating “marked changes” in the trans patient population–from that of those who are born men and would like to become women to “girls in their early teens claiming that they were born in the wrong body.”

I’m waiting for the inevitable backlash (on both sides of the Atlantic), and in the meantime, I’m celebrating this outbreak of common sense from a country that maybe–just maybe–is waking up.

Published in General
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 33 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    She: I’m waiting for the inevitable backlash (on both sides of the Atlantic), and in the meantime, I’m celebrating this outbreak of common sense from a country that maybe–just maybe–is waking up.

    Don’t count on it. If they really woke up, it would be the end of the NHS.

    • #1
  2. She Member
    She
    @She

    Arahant (View Comment):

    She: I’m waiting for the inevitable backlash (on both sides of the Atlantic), and in the meantime, I’m celebrating this outbreak of common sense from a country that maybe–just maybe–is waking up.

    Don’t count on it. If they really woke up, it would be the end of the NHS.

    I agree that’s an unlikely eventuality under Rishi, Liz, or Sir Keir. When Kemi Badenoch’s in charge though….A girl can dream.  

    • #2
  3. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    She (View Comment):
    When Kemi Badenoch’s in charge though….A girl can dream.  

    From your lips to God’s ears.

    • #3
  4. Misthiocracy has never Member
    Misthiocracy has never
    @Misthiocracy

    The sound of the Left singing the praises of private medicine in 3 … 2 … 1 …

    • #4
  5. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

     

     

    • #5
  6. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    She: It took over six months for him to get an MRI

    I just saw this again. Part of “government” healthcare is that they will find ways to cut costs. Had a friend who lived in Canada in the early 2000’s. She died of a very treatable cancer because they would run one test and put her on a waiting list for the next test, which she might have two months later. By the time they diagnosed her problem, it was too late to treat.

    In 2007 I fell and broke one of my vertebrae. (One of the doctors said, “You crushed that like a Coke can!”) I had X-Rays, an MRI, and maybe another test within a few hours. Our healthcare has far too much governmental interference, but it’s still better than what governments everywhere provide.

    • #6
  7. She Member
    She
    @She

    Arahant (View Comment):

    She: It took over six months for him to get an MRI

    I just saw this again. Part of “government” healthcare is that they will find ways to cut costs. Had a friend who lived in Canada in the early 2000’s. She died of a very treatable cancer because they would run one test and put her on a waiting list for the next test, which she might have two months later. By the time they diagnosed her problem, it was too late to treat.

    In 2007 I fell and broke one of my vertebrae. (One of the doctors said, “You crushed that like a Coke can!”) I had X-Rays, an MRI, and maybe another test within a few hours. Our healthcare has far too much governmental interference, but it’s still better than what governments everywhere provide.

    Oh yes, I completely agree.  My Canadian horror story has to do with Prince Edward Island, a fully-fledged province, one of only 10 in the country (there are also three “territories”).  But, in real terms, PEI is a province which should enjoy the same sort of facilities and access to government services as better-known and larger provinces such as British Columbia, Ontario, or Quebec do.

    Some time (about 25 years) ago the wife of a friend of mine, fell ill with cancer.  He (they were both elderly) had to drive her to another province, in this case, New Brunswick,  for her chemo treatments, because PEI had not a single facility capable of providing them.  It was just before Confederation Bridge–connecting the Island and the mainland–opened, so the journey entailed organizing and timing the trip to coincide with the ferry voyage between the two.  (Same-same as what my sister and her husband have to cope with today between the Isle of Skye and the mainland).  In both/all cases, this adds several hours to every trip.

    There’s a method to the madness you mention here:

    Arahant (View Comment):
    She died of a very treatable cancer because they would run one test and put her on a waiting list for the next test, which she might have two months later. By the time they diagnosed her problem, it was too late to treat.

    If you die before the definitive diagnosis, then your death isn’t attributable to a failure of the care that you received, it’s due to an “unknown cause.”

    Shameful.

     

    • #7
  8. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    She (View Comment):

    If you die before the definitive diagnosis, then your death isn’t attributable to a failure of the care that you received, it’s due to an “unknown cause.”

    Yep.

    • #8
  9. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    One of the best remarks I have heard recently about the UK’s NHS is this one:

    If the medical receptionists for most hospitals and clinics in Britain were switched out with the UK’s Border Patrol, two benefits would descend: there would be a vast decline in newly arriving immigrants and a vast increase in the number of British people who could once again visit a doctor.

    • #9
  10. JustmeinAZ Member
    JustmeinAZ
    @JustmeinAZ

    Arahant (View Comment):
    Our healthcare has far too much governmental interference, but it’s still better than what governments everywhere provide.

    So true. In 2019 when I discovered a breast lump I had scans galore and was already on chemo within 2 months and surgery within a month after finishing chemo. In less than a year I had all treatments and was  pronounced cured. I think that’s pretty good.

    Fell and broke my hip on a Wednesday evening two months ago. Had x-rays and scans the same night and surgery was complete by breakfast time Thursday morning. Went to rehab within 2 days and was home walking two weeks later. 

    There are many legitimate complaints about our healthcare system but I can’t complain right now.

    • #10
  11. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    JustmeinAZ (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):
    Our healthcare has far too much governmental interference, but it’s still better than what governments everywhere provide.

    So true. In 2019 when I discovered a breast lump I had scans galore and was already on chemo within 2 months and surgery within a month after finishing chemo. In less than a year I had all treatments and was pronounced cured. I think that’s pretty good.

    Fell and broke my hip on a Wednesday evening two months ago. Had x-rays and scans the same night and surgery was complete by breakfast time Thursday morning. Went to rehab within 2 days and was home walking two weeks later.

    There are many legitimate complaints about our healthcare system but I can’t complain right now.

    Wait, what?  You didn’t have to step over the dead bodies of the uninsured, at each stage?

    • #11
  12. Charlotte Member
    Charlotte
    @Charlotte

    She: The article goes on to note that NHS officials have also noted that “significant numbers” of children presenting as trans seem to have “neurodiversity and other mental health needs and risky behaviors which…need to be better understood.”

    Gosh, who could have predicted that??

    • #12
  13. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    kedavis (View Comment):
    You didn’t have to step over the dead bodies of the uninsured, at each stage?

    With a broken hip? Nah, they wheeled her over them.

    • #13
  14. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    She (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    She: It took over six months for him to get an MRI

    I just saw this again. Part of “government” healthcare is that they will find ways to cut costs. Had a friend who lived in Canada in the early 2000’s. She died of a very treatable cancer because they would run one test and put her on a waiting list for the next test, which she might have two months later. By the time they diagnosed her problem, it was too late to treat.

    In 2007 I fell and broke one of my vertebrae. (One of the doctors said, “You crushed that like a Coke can!”) I had X-Rays, an MRI, and maybe another test within a few hours. Our healthcare has far too much governmental interference, but it’s still better than what governments everywhere provide.

    Oh yes, I completely agree. My Canadian horror story has to do with Prince Edward Island, a fully-fledged province, one of only 10 in the country (there are also three “territories”). But, in real terms, PEI is a province which should enjoy the same sort of facilities and access to government services as better-known and larger provinces such as British Columbia, Ontario, or Quebec do.

    Some time (about 25 years) ago the wife of a friend of mine, fell ill with cancer. He (they were both elderly) had to drive her to another province, in this case, New Brunswick, for her chemo treatments, because PEI had not a single facility capable of providing them. It was just before Confederation Bridge–connecting the Island and the mainland–opened, so the journey entailed organizing and timing the trip to coincide with the ferry voyage between the two. (Same-same as what my sister and her husband have to cope with today between the Isle of Skye and the mainland). In both/all cases, this adds several hours to every trip.

    Cheaper that way.  Think of all the expensive treatment that they didn’t have to pay for.

     

    • #14
  15. aardo vozz Member
    aardo vozz
    @aardovozz

    She (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    She: It took over six months for him to get an MRI

    I just saw this again. Part of “government” healthcare is that they will find ways to cut costs. Had a friend who lived in Canada in the early 2000’s. She died of a very treatable cancer because they would run one test and put her on a waiting list for the next test, which she might have two months later. By the time they diagnosed her problem, it was too late to treat.

    In 2007 I fell and broke one of my vertebrae. (One of the doctors said, “You crushed that like a Coke can!”) I had X-Rays, an MRI, and maybe another test within a few hours. Our healthcare has far too much governmental interference, but it’s still better than what governments everywhere provide.

    Oh yes, I completely agree. My Canadian horror story has to do with Prince Edward Island, a fully-fledged province, one of only 10 in the country (there are also three “territories”). But, in real terms, PEI is a province which should enjoy the same sort of facilities and access to government services as better-known and larger provinces such as British Columbia, Ontario, or Quebec do.

    Some time (about 25 years) ago the wife of a friend of mine, fell ill with cancer. He (they were both elderly) had to drive her to another province, in this case, New Brunswick, for her chemo treatments, because PEI had not a single facility capable of providing them. It was just before Confederation Bridge–connecting the Island and the mainland–opened, so the journey entailed organizing and timing the trip to coincide with the ferry voyage between the two. (Same-same as what my sister and her husband have to cope with today between the Isle of Skye and the mainland). In both/all cases, this adds several hours to every trip.

    There’s a method to the madness you mention here:

    Arahant (View Comment):
    She died of a very treatable cancer because they would run one test and put her on a waiting list for the next test, which she might have two months later. By the time they diagnosed her problem, it was too late to treat.

    If you die before the definitive diagnosis, then your death isn’t attributable to a failure of the care that you received, it’s due to an “unknown cause.”

    Shameful.

     

    And insufficiently cynical 😡

    • #15
  16. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    aardo vozz (View Comment):

    She (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    She: It took over six months for him to get an MRI

    I just saw this again. Part of “government” healthcare is that they will find ways to cut costs. Had a friend who lived in Canada in the early 2000’s. She died of a very treatable cancer because they would run one test and put her on a waiting list for the next test, which she might have two months later. By the time they diagnosed her problem, it was too late to treat.

    In 2007 I fell and broke one of my vertebrae. (One of the doctors said, “You crushed that like a Coke can!”) I had X-Rays, an MRI, and maybe another test within a few hours. Our healthcare has far too much governmental interference, but it’s still better than what governments everywhere provide.

    Oh yes, I completely agree. My Canadian horror story has to do with Prince Edward Island, a fully-fledged province, one of only 10 in the country (there are also three “territories”). But, in real terms, PEI is a province which should enjoy the same sort of facilities and access to government services as better-known and larger provinces such as British Columbia, Ontario, or Quebec do.

    Some time (about 25 years) ago the wife of a friend of mine, fell ill with cancer. He (they were both elderly) had to drive her to another province, in this case, New Brunswick, for her chemo treatments, because PEI had not a single facility capable of providing them. It was just before Confederation Bridge–connecting the Island and the mainland–opened, so the journey entailed organizing and timing the trip to coincide with the ferry voyage between the two. (Same-same as what my sister and her husband have to cope with today between the Isle of Skye and the mainland). In both/all cases, this adds several hours to every trip.

    There’s a method to the madness you mention here:

    Arahant (View Comment):
    She died of a very treatable cancer because they would run one test and put her on a waiting list for the next test, which she might have two months later. By the time they diagnosed her problem, it was too late to treat.

    If you die before the definitive diagnosis, then your death isn’t attributable to a failure of the care that you received, it’s due to an “unknown cause.”

    Shameful.

     

    And insufficiently cynical 😡

    Sounds like China not counting covid deaths if they didn’t make it to a hospital AND get a positive test, first.

    • #16
  17. Marjorie Reynolds Coolidge
    Marjorie Reynolds
    @MarjorieReynolds

    She (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    She: I’m waiting for the inevitable backlash (on both sides of the Atlantic), and in the meantime, I’m celebrating this outbreak of common sense from a country that maybe–just maybe–is waking up.

    Don’t count on it. If they really woke up, it would be the end of the NHS.

    I agree that’s an unlikely eventuality under Rishi, Liz, or Sir Keir. When Kemi Badenoch’s in charge though….A girl can dream.

    I hope so. Tavistock is where they send Irish children too, and a team from there come to Crumlin Children’s Hospital every month. 
    In the last month I’ve noticed two more senior colleagues to me adopting pronouns, and a noticeable increase from last year in requests to change gender options on an application form we use. I should point out that the ‘genders’ in question relate to children, the vast majority having autism.

    I have said before that I fear that Ireland, owing to the small population, the media strangulation and the overall compliant nature of the majority, will become a safe house in Europe for every bad progressive idea, even after they’ve been rejected elsewhere.

    • #17
  18. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Marjorie Reynolds (View Comment):
    In the last month I’ve noticed two more senior colleagues to me adopting pronouns, and a noticeable increase from last year in requests to change gender options on an application form we use.

    Do you have Otherkin listed?

    • #18
  19. Marjorie Reynolds Coolidge
    Marjorie Reynolds
    @MarjorieReynolds

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Marjorie Reynolds (View Comment):
    In the last month I’ve noticed two more senior colleagues to me adopting pronouns, and a noticeable increase from last year in requests to change gender options on an application form we use.

    Do you have Otherkin listed?

    Ha! Perhaps that it one the 9 genders our minister for social protection says we now recognise but failed to list.

    Unfortunately our form uses the word gender instead of sex which is an accident waiting to happen. 

    • #19
  20. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    Percival (View Comment):
    Cheaper that way.  Think of all the expensive treatment that they didn’t have to pay for.

    While, at the same time, forbidding any sort of private medical services.

     

    • #20
  21. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):
    Cheaper that way. Think of all the expensive treatment that they didn’t have to pay for.

    While, at the same time, forbidding any sort of private medical services.

     

    Unless you can afford to fly somewhere where private medical services are still legal.

    • #21
  22. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Percival (View Comment):

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):
    Cheaper that way. Think of all the expensive treatment that they didn’t have to pay for.

    While, at the same time, forbidding any sort of private medical services.

     

    Unless you can afford to fly somewhere where private medical services are still legal.

    But if they do that, don’t they forfeit NHS benefits (such as they are) for some number of years, perhaps permanently?

    • #22
  23. She Member
    She
    @She

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):
    Cheaper that way. Think of all the expensive treatment that they didn’t have to pay for.

    While, at the same time, forbidding any sort of private medical services.

     

    Unless you can afford to fly somewhere where private medical services are still legal.

    But if they do that, don’t they forfeit NHS benefits (such as they are) for some number of years, perhaps permanently?

    I think the conversation here is about Canada. Plenty of private medical services in the UK. And, no. 

    • #23
  24. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    She (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):
    Cheaper that way. Think of all the expensive treatment that they didn’t have to pay for.

    While, at the same time, forbidding any sort of private medical services.

     

    Unless you can afford to fly somewhere where private medical services are still legal.

    But if they do that, don’t they forfeit NHS benefits (such as they are) for some number of years, perhaps permanently?

    I think the conversation here is about Canada. Plenty of private medical services in the UK. And, no.

    Hmm, maybe it was something I read about proposed changes then, that didn’t get passed.

    • #24
  25. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Amen.

    • #25
  26. She Member
    She
    @She

    kedavis (View Comment):

    She (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):
    Cheaper that way. Think of all the expensive treatment that they didn’t have to pay for.

    While, at the same time, forbidding any sort of private medical services.

     

    Unless you can afford to fly somewhere where private medical services are still legal.

    But if they do that, don’t they forfeit NHS benefits (such as they are) for some number of years, perhaps permanently?

    I think the conversation here is about Canada. Plenty of private medical services in the UK. And, no.

    Hmm, maybe it was something I read about proposed changes then, that didn’t get passed.

    There’s always been a thriving, parallel, private health care system in the UK.  People with the means to do so bounce back and forth between it and the NHS as it advantages them.  I’m not aware of any efforts to amend that.

    Canada does not have a parallel system, and citizens are prohibited from contracting for and paying for the provision of services privately if they are covered for those services under the government plan.  (Doctors can set up private clinics for things that are not funded by government healthcare, such as dentistry and cosmetic surgery.  And there are certain “luxury” add ons for things like hospital stays that can be paid for privately.) I believe that certain entities like Veterans Affairs can pay extra to get their clients expedited access, but Canada, generally, ranks near the bottom of nations when it comes to availability of key services and wait times to obtain them.

    I’m not sure how the the Canadian government would know if a Canadian citizen left the country for heart surgery or an appendectomy, or something like that, if they weren’t told.  Canadian health care doesn’t travel with the patient outside the country.  And there are restrictions on how long a Canadian citizen can be outside the country and still keep his healthcare.

    • #26
  27. She Member
    She
    @She

    Couple of interesting follow ups:

    1. Bari Weiss’s Common Sense Substack feed has an article by Lisa Davis about the NHS decision and how she thinks things will fall out in the US in context. She seems to think that the US will double down on support for early puberty blockers and the unquestioning acceptance of “gender affirmation” as a necessary, even mandatory, part of childhood medical care.  

      Hafta say, I was reminded of some aspects of the abortion situation in the US, in that the rest of the world (with the exception of China, North Korea, and Russia, and perhaps very few others) limits access to abortion to a set timeframe, usually somewhere around, or just after the first trimester.  While I may not approve of any of that (I do not) I do recognize that–in most of the rest of the world–there’s also a recognition on the other side that there should be limits.  The Left, in the US, won’t stand for limits of any sort.  

      And it looks–no matter what the “science!” and the rest of the world says or does, that it won’t stand for limits on the “gender affirmation” issue either.

    2. While “Auntie” herself may not have figured it out, many BBC staff are protesting the 2017 “equality” project which strongly recommends a diversity benchmark that half of its program contributors should be women.  Since there’s no requirement to track whether or not one is a “biological” versus a “chemically-assisted” woman, staff are calling foul, and the Beeb is being accused of “disappearing” women as a sex class in favor of illusory ideas about “gender identity.”

    I think the gig is up.  In the rest of the world, anyway.

    • #27
  28. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):
    Cheaper that way. Think of all the expensive treatment that they didn’t have to pay for.

    While, at the same time, forbidding any sort of private medical services.

    It’s like when schools teach CRT, which is exciting, instead of math, which is boring. 

    • #28
  29. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    She (View Comment):
    …citizens are prohibited from contracting for and paying for the provision of services privately if they are covered for those services under the government plan. 

    Thou shalt have no other gods before me™. 

    • #29
  30. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    She (View Comment):

    While “Auntie” herself may not have figured it out, many BBC staff are protesting the 2017 “equality” project which strongly recommends a diversity benchmark that half of its program contributors should be women. Since there’s no requirement to track whether or not one is a “biological” versus a “chemically-assisted” woman, staff are calling foul, and the Beeb is being accused of “disappearing” women as a sex class in favor of illusory ideas about “gender identity.”

    “But, I identify as an employable woman, darling.” 

    “Dude. You wore a dress once. In high school. During spirit week.” 

    • #30
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.