JOANNA Cherry and the former leader of the Scottish Greens have called for the closure of a leading gender identity clinic for young people.
In a letter to national clinical director Jason Leitch, the SNP MP for Edinburgh South West and Robin Harper said Sandyford’s gender service was putting young people struggling with their gender identity or sexuality at “significant risk”.
It comes after the NHS south of the Border announced it would close the Tavistock clinic in London, the largest provider of gender identity services in England, after a review by Dr Hilary Cass.
Sandyford offers services including counselling to young people and in rare cases puberty blockers but only if "puberty has already started and assesment shows that the young person is experiencing clear, persistent and consisten gender dysphoria".
The gender identity clinic is only offering initial appointments to those who registered with the service in 2018.
Dr Cass was commissioned by NHS England to investigate concerns about the Tavistock clinic, which is facing legal claims for “medical negligence” from patients and their parents who claim children were too quickly given puberty blockers and other treatments for gender dysphoria.
You can read the joint letter Robin & I have written to @jasonleitch here. pic.twitter.com/WQiKBqTiw7
— Joanna Cherry QC (@joannaccherry) August 15, 2022
The Cass review found that mental health problems were “overshadowed” when children at the clinic raised the possibility they did not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth.
Cherry and Harper’s letter – also sent to Health Secretary Humza Yousaf – said the same concerns applied at the Sandyford clinic, which provides gender identity services to children in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Ayrshire and Arran, Forth Valley, Lanarkshire, Tayside, Western Isles and Dumfries and Galloway health boards.
Calling gender identity services for children “experimental” treatments, Cherry and Harper said a national model as seen at both the Sandyford and Tavistock clinics was not suitable, claiming under-18s would be better served by local services “which take a more holistic approach”.
They claimed that children who were suffering from trauma from abuse and those struggling to come to terms with their sexuality were being offered inappropriate treatment.
They said: “It is clear from the interim Cass Review that the current model of a centralised national service for children and young people who experience gender dysphoria puts them at significant risk.
“Many children have been put on a medical/surgical pathway with insufficient exploration and often little consideration of consent.
“There has been a lack of follow up of those who have undergone what can only be regarded as experimental treatment.”
The Cass review said the Tavistock clinic, which provided services for children across England in the same way as the Sandyford does in Scotland, should be replaced with an “appropriate multi-professional workforce to enable them to provide an integrated model of care that manages the holistic needs of this population”.
She added: “Staff should maintain a broad clinical perspective in order to embed the care of children and young people with gender uncertainty within a broader child and adolescent health context.”
Cherry has been a long-term critic of the SNP’s stance on gender issues, opposing the party’s delayed plans to reform gender recognition rules to make certificates matching a person’s sex to their gender easier to obtain.
Harper, the first Green politician to be elected to any parliament in Britain when he was voted in as an MSP for the Lothians, led the party from 2004 to 2008.
He is patron of LGBT Youth Scotland and has criticised his party for backing independence and agreeing a coalition deal with the SNP following the 2021 elections.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government recognises the need to provide the best possible care for young people questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender dysphoria.
“As previously stated, the findings from the Cass Review will be closely considered within the context of NHS Scotland services as part of our broader commitment to improve access to, and delivery of, NHS gender identity services.”
A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which manages the Sandyford clinic, said: "The Sandyford clinic continues to offer a range of gender services in line with national frameworks."
