Transgender Identity Clinics Overwhelmed With The Increased Number Of People Seeking Treatment

The number of people in the United Kingdom undergoing treatments to change their gender has risen dramatically in recent years, with some having to wait for years to have an appointment with a specialist.

According to Mail Online, all 14 UK gender identity clinics (GICs) have seen a dramatic increase in the number of cases, with one clinic in Nottingham reporting a whopping 28 times increase since 2008. One clinic in London, which is the only UK center for children and adolescents, has noted the number of patients increased by more than double in only a year, from 697 to 1,398.

The Guardian reported that the figures collected under the Freedom of Information Act showed a dramatic increase in the number of referrals to all of the UK's 14 GICs in recent years. It also revealed that clinics are experiencing increases of several hundred percent.

A Charing Cross in London, the oldest and largest adult clinic, the number of referrals has almost quadrupled in 10 years, from 498 in 2006-07 to 1,892 in 2015-16.

 "It obviously can't continue like that forever because we'd be treating everyone in the country, but there isn't any sign of that levelling off," said James Barrett, consultant psychiatrist at the Charing Cross clinic.

The average waiting time to have a first appointment at a GIC are estimated between nine months for adults and half of that for children. In some special cases, one in six adults usually waits more than a year to have the appointment.

However, according to independent.co.uk, experts at a GIC in Leeds said that patients referred at the end of October 2015 could have an estimated wait time of four years before they can have their first consultation with a medical specialist.

Meanwhile, Louie Stafford, the trans program coordinator for the LGBT Foundation, was referred to the same Leeds clinic in 2012 and waited two years for his first appointment.

Mr. Stafford warned that long waiting time can have a negative effect on trans people, who were already reported to have higher rates of depression and suicide than the rest of the population. Stafford told The Guardian: "You're referred from your GP, there is no contact with any specialists or clinicians until your first appointment at the gender identity clinic. People are completely on their own, sometimes for up to three years, dealing with issues around gender that are potentially life-threatening ... It's not surprising that people get desperate in that timeframe."

There are more than 15,000 people who are gender identity patients in the UK. About12,700  are adults and 2,700 are adolescents or children.

In 2015-16, the NHS in England added £4.4m towards funding gender identity services. Will Huxter, the chair of the NHS England gender task and finish group, said: "We're keen to get waiting times down as quickly as we possibly can."

Huxter said that one problem is that aren't specialized training for medical professionals to make them ready to work in the GICs. "We are working with Health Education England and the GMC [General Medical Council] about how we could improve that for the future," he said.