NHS England working to improve communications with people who are transgender or non-binary

In May 2015, we raised outstanding concerns about the lack of communication and information for transgender people and patients. We also raised our concerns about people facing considerable delays in waiting times for assessment and surgery and workforce issues including a lack of specialist consultants and a lack of planning.

NHS England have heard the concerns we and other organisations raised and have recently published their first online blog 'Improving communication about gender identity services'. This blog is the first in their series of regular updates about what NHS England is doing to improve gender identity services, upcoming publications and events.

We believe this is a very positive step toward greater communication in this service area. We are particularly pleased to hear that NHS England decided to invest an extra £4.4 million in providers of gender identity services to help reduce waiting times.

NHS England have also acknowledged the need to recruit and train additional surgeon is the key limiting factor for reducing waiting times more quickly and invited a range of national organisations to a symposium to discuss the issue. The symposium will be followed up with a further event early in 2016, to review progress against the commitments made by organisations working across regulation, standards, training and education on the day.

We now look forward to seeing these investments in action and to working closely with NHS England to make sure that all trans people can access the information they need.

If you are facing problems accessing gender identity services in your area, please contact your local Healthwatch.

You can view our most recent correspondence with NHS England about gender identity services below.