There is no case for closing Scotland’s only clinic to offer treatment to gender-questioning young people, Humza Yousaf has said, amid calls for the Scottish government to halt the service in the wake of the Cass review.
The Sandyford clinic, based in Glasgow, offers a range of services including emergency contraception, abortion and support for sexual assault victims as well as transgender healthcare.
This includes the young person’s gender service that can refer under-18s to endocrine specialists for possible prescription of puberty blockers. There are currently 1,100 young people on the waiting list.
Last week, a landmark review by the paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass that was commissioned by NHS England found “weak evidence” for the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to treat young people experiencing gender incongruence and said that this vulnerable cohort had been “let down” by the “toxicity” of the debate surrounding their care.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland as the Holyrood parliament resumed after Easter recess, Yousaf said Scottish heath boards would give the “utmost consideration” to Cass’s 388-page report. But he added: “When it comes to the prescribing of medicine, clinicians are best placed – not politicians, government ministers or myself as first minister.”
Yousaf went on: “I don’t believe that there’s a case to close the Sandyford. The Sandyford provides some exceptional health care to some of those who are the most marginalised and vulnerable, not just young people, but right across the spectrum.”
The Scottish government is facing cross-party pressure to respond to the review, which also called for more research into psychological and psychosocial interventions and recommended a model of future care based around regional hubs across England.
The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, on Monday called for the Scottish government “to quickly come forward and [say] how they’re going to respond”.
The Scottish Conservative deputy leader, Meghan Gallacher, accused Yousaf of “failing vulnerable young people” and called for him to pause the prescribing of puberty blockers while clinicians considered the report.
The Cass review found there was no evidence that puberty blockers had an effect on gender dysphoria but that they did compromise bone health and that they should only be offered in very limited circumstances as part of a wider research protocol.
But on Monday, Holyrood’s minister for mental wellbeing, Maree Todd, told reporters that puberty blockers “were never routinely prescribed” in Scotland.
It is understood that “a very small number” of under 18-year-olds have been referred by the Sandyford to endocrinology for puberty blockers but that, given the numbers involved and patient confidentiality, the health board cannot disclose the exact figure.
Clinicians at the Sandyford have previously told the Guardian that a referral there often allows very confused young people, and anxious parents, the chance to reflect on what is really troubling them. A variety of professionals can often “inject a sense of reality” into patients’ beliefs that what they have read online could be a quick fix for their problems.
While critics have described the clinic as “the tartan Tavistock”, the Guardian understands that the Sandyford does not follow a strictly affirmative model of care for young people, an approach that Cass called into question.
Staff have also described the pressure of ongoing anti-abortion protests outside the clinic. Last year, members of the Scottish Family party – which is led by the former Ukip member Richard Lucas – carried out a mock “bricking up” of the entrance to the clinic.
A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “We are committed to providing the best possible clinical care for young people accessing our gender services. We are working with the Scottish government and NHS Scotland to consider the findings of this review.”
