Results from a survey into the effect of treatment delays to the psychological well being of transgender patients
Extract from Survey Website
Following announcements by several GIC's that they are running out of funding this year - for example, the Laurel's GIC has recently announced that they will be unable to fund any surgeries for patient's from some time in November through to next April when their next fiscal year commences.
This has been caused in part by a large increase in the number of people who have come forward over the last few years and presented as being transgender, this in turn has put considerable pressure on the budget that NHS England has for all the speciality commissioned services, gender reassignment surgery being on of those services.
Many people are blaming the NHS, but in fairness to them, it really isn't their fault - this government keeps cutting the amount of funding to the NHS and specialised services are one where the axe falls hardest - especially for funding for transgender services as the general public tend not to rate money spent in this area very high on their list of priorities, which isn't helped by negative press from such rags such as the Daily Mail.
However, these funding shortfalls are having a devastating affect on the lives of transgender people - they go by the book and complete what is mandated of them by the GIC's by completing their RLE's, fully expecting their referral at the end of that period - and then they are told "Sorry, the money has run out now, you will have to wait until next year for your referral".
Has this affected you? Will it affect you in the next few months?
This is what this survey is about, if your life, your mental health, your physical health has been affected on hearing about these funding shortfalls, tell us about it - hopefully if enough people are being affected, then we can pressure NHS England to look again and try to get extra funding.
Extract from Report
Of the participants who have actually transitioned a total of 7% are finding life to be pretty much the same or more difficult after transition than it was before and 6% are actually self harming and/or considering suicide more frequently. Transition for the majority of people has brought about a much greater feeling of being relaxed about their new role in life (81%), feeling much happier with themselves (81%). Many have stopped self harm altogether and many who had suicidal thoughts prior to transition no longer consider this (20% and 31% respectively).
Unfortunately, of those who have been told of delays (caused by various factors such as the funding shortfalls at many GIC’s or the resignation of one of the surgeons performing gender reassignment surgeries at Charing Cross Hospital causing a massive backlog which will take a considerable time to work through) this has led to a large increase in those reporting increased depression (73%), anxiety (80%) and lethargic/miserable (55%) - of those some are resorting to self harming as a means of coping (18%) and a large increase (33%) in those considering suicide they feel so abandoned by the NHS.
