For transgender men and transmasculine individuals in the UK, the wait for gender-affirming care on the National Health Service (NHS) can be life-threatening. The NHS gender identity clinic (GIC) system has been in crisis for years, and little has been done to address it. Currently, trans individuals seeking any gender-affirming care on the NHS must be seen by a GIC, and all of them have years-long waiting lists.
The waiting times for an initial appointment can be upwards of five years at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust GIC in London, which is seeing patients referred to them as long ago as 2018. In other regions of the UK, such as Devon Partnership NHS Trust’s GIC, the wait for an initial appointment is even longer.
For those seeking lower surgery, which is the surgical creation of a penis, the waiting times are even more excruciating. Activists at Transgender Action Block have warned that trans and non-binary people could be waiting “as long as four years” for phalloplasty or metoidioplasty, which can be life-threatening.
The mismanagement of the NHS is the reason behind the delays, according to pamphlets circulated at a recent protest outside NHS England in London by the Transgender Action Block. The pamphlets also demanded that the NHS apologize to patients, offer mental health support, and fund surgery abroad for those on the waiting lists.
The impact of such delays in treatment can be life-altering and traumatising for trans people, and access to gender-affirming healthcare can be life-saving. NHS England has a statutory requirement that at least 92 percent of patients using the healthcare service should have a referral-to-treatment wait of no more than 18 weeks. But this is not happening for trans adults, who are waiting years to get their appointments.
In 2022, a group of trans people, trans-led charity Gendered Intelligence, and the Good Law Project were given permission to mount a historic judicial review against NHS England over the waiting times. In January, the High Court ruled that the waiting times were lawful, but the groups are said to be appealing that judgement.
The Transgender Action Block is calling for immediate action to address the healthcare crisis that is putting trans lives at risk.