Minister for Health gives no commitments on Tavistock referrals after meeting clinicians

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has held a meeting with doctors from the National Gender Service (NGS), but made no commitments about stopping referrals to the Tavistock clinic in the United Kingdom.

The meeting was held on Tuesday between Mr Donnelly and senior clinicians who have raised concerns about HSE plans to continue referring patients to Tavistock.

Earlier this year, an interim report by Dr Hilary Cass found staff at Tavistock felt “under pressure” to adopt an “unquestioning affirmative approach” to gender that was at odds with standard clinical assessment processes. Dr Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the UK, had been commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS) to conduct a review of healthcare for gender identity services for children and young people.

This month, psychiatrists Dr Paul Moran and Dr Ian Schneider, along with endocrinologists Dr Karl Neff and Prof Donal O’Shea, wrote a letter to Mr Donnelly on the issue.

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This led to Tuesday’s meeting, which one source described as the first of many. Two sources confirmed that while the clinicians want to see an end to referrals, no such commitment was given by Mr Donnelly. It is understood that the meeting was given details of efforts to recruit professionals in Ireland to provide the services given by the Tavistock clinic but that this post remains unfilled.

Dr Moran, who works in the NGS at St Columcille’s Hospital, Loughlinstown, had earlier criticised the Tavistock clinic in 2020. In internal emails, he said he felt the service was “not capable of adequate assessment of suitability and readiness for hormone treatments or surgery”.

Some 238 young people in Ireland were referred to Tavistock between 2011 and 2021, while there were 17 referrals in the first five months of this year. The HSE said 11 children in Ireland are currently on puberty blocker and cross-sex hormones, prescribed by their clinicians in Ireland.

The lack of these foundational practices has led to the planned closure next year of the Tavistock and Portman Trust, the sole provider of gender identity development services in NHS England. It will be replaced with a number of regional centres.

One source briefed on the meeting said that it can take anywhere up to three years for an Irish patient to be seen at the clinic. They said that while it was expected the clinic would close next year, there were still doubts around the exact timings.

The source said the clinicians set out their concerns and “made their case” but that the Minister is not yet in a position to make any public commitments, as he wants to hold further meetings with clinicians first.