A London clinic known for recommending puberty blockers for children suffering from gender dysphoria and encouraging teenagers to undergo surgeries to remove their genitals or breasts was found to be operating outside of NHS safeguards following an investigation.
The Tavistock clinic, run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, England’s lone specialist clinic for children and youths who are confused about their gender, was found to be performing services that are “not safe or viable,” such as prescribing opposite-sex hormones to children as young as 10, which can lead to early onset of osteoporosis and other ailments.
In a report released this week, Dr. Hilary Cass, a retired pediatrician who was commissioned by NHS England to investigate services at the clinic, said services administered to children and young people had somehow escaped the NHS’ “normal quality controls,” The Times reported.
Findings in the report validate whistleblowers who have warned that the clinic does not follow prescribed safeguards and clinical standards.
The Tavistock clinic made headlines in 2018 after Dr. David Bell, a psychiatrist, released a detailed whistleblower report about the experimental procedures that were being performed on children. The report said clinicians were fast-tracking young adults into medicalized gender transitions without fully exploring the contributing factors that led to their psychological distress.
From about 50 referrals in 2009, the number of referrals the clinic received increased to 2,500 in 2020, mostly from females who started suffering gender identity issues in their early teens, with a further 4,600 young people on the waiting list, according to the Times.
Cass’ report said, “Because the specialist service has evolved rapidly and organically in response to demand, the clinical approach and overall service design has not been subjected to some of the normal quality controls that are typically applied when new or innovative treatments are introduced.”
About a third of referrals to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), a clinic within the Tavistock facility, have autism or other types of neurodiversity, and “looked after” children in local authority homes or foster care have an over-representation, the newspaper added.
Cass also said in the report that GIDS has not consistently collected data about service users and their outcomes cannot justify the approach to treatment.