A UK doctor warned that private clinics are not providing proper assessment to children questioning their gender identity.
This, after the National Health Services of England (NHS) banned the prescription of puberty blockers for children at gender identity clinics last month.
In a groundbreaking review for the NHS, Dr. Hilary Cass found that the global clinical practice of prescribing hormones to minors under the age of 18 to halt puberty or transition to the opposite sex was not well-supported and that the entire field of medicine devoted to helping children change their gender had been “built on shaky foundations,” per The Times.
The review resulted in the NHS banning puberty blocker prescriptions for minors at government-owned facilities, but Dr. Cass warned “I do have concerns about private provision which is not providing the level of assessment that I’m recommending in the NHS.”
During a Wednesday appearance on BBC Radio 4’s “Today,” Dr. Cass said her team had “asked NHS England to provide advice to families about what it means if they go down a private route in terms of coming back into the NHS later.”
“Because of the toxicity of the debate, [children have] often been bypassed by local services who’ve been really nervous about seeing them. So rather than doing the things that they would do for other young people with depression or anxiety, or perhaps undiagnosed autistic spectrum disorder, they’ve tended to pass them straight on to the Gids service,” said Cass.
Dr. Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said she wanted to “help clinicians from all backgrounds realize that they do have the transferable skills to see these young people.”
Hellbound and Down 