Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
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
I have several friends in Canada and they continually pay for certain medical interventions out of pocket as the Medical Establishment there is in the dark about how to treat ailments like Lyme disease and other auto immune conditions. So far, none of my friends have been forced out of the national insurance plan as the items they have sought would not have been encouraged by the traditional doctors in that network.
My understanding is that this changed about a decade ago when a Court ruled that government funding of healthcare did not equal access to healthcare. This was because the waiting times had gotten too long and people had sued the government because the government had not provided enough facilities. The plaintiffs won and private entities were allowed to set up clinics that could then receive government funding for the procedures.
This came up in a previous Ricochet argument I was involved in. My position was that there was no private health care allowed and I was shown to be wrong.
Interesting, thanks. I’ve been looking for clarification on this myself. @torywarwriter @misthiocracy ?