Waiting Times

• Support if you are waiting

People are experiencing long waits at the moment and we are sorry that our service is not able to see more people, more quickly.  We know how difficult it can feel, not knowing when you might start your journey with our service.

We do not prioritise access – we see people based on the date of their referral to us. There are a few exceptions to this:

• People who have been discharged from our service on the understanding they can resume treatment if referred again.
• People who are transferred from the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) or from another Gender Identity Clinic who have already started critically important clinical treatment will have their treatment continued by our service.
• People referred to us from GIDS who have not received a diagnosis or started critically important treatment will join the waiting list with the date of their referral to GIDS.

Like others across the country, our service was commissioned and designed to support a certain number of people every year. However, demand for the service has increased significantly over recent years and, although the number of referrals is now gradually coming down, this has led to long waiting times. 

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the number of people who are able to have their gender-confirming surgery and complete their journey with our service.

We know how much distress can be caused by long waits for assessment and treatment and we are working hard with our commissioners to address the issue – but the challenges are significant.  A large number of people are currently waiting for their initial assessment and we are unable to give an accurate indication of how long these people may have to wait before they are assessed and start their treatment with us – for which we apologise wholeheartedly. 

We are currently focusing our limited resources on people who have already had their first appointment. We are working with people to complete their assessment and start their treatment, as well as supporting those who have already started their treatment with us. We also see people who have been transferred from other adult Gender Identity Clinics and from the Gender Identity Development Service, when continuing the care they have started with another service is of critical clinical importance.

We are working with our commissioners to shape our service over the next three years so that we can reduce waiting times.  We are also exploring ways in which we can provide additional support to people while they are waiting.

Please do not contact the clinic to enquire about waiting times as our staff are very busy and we cannot provide any more information than is provided here.  Thank you.

If you have received confirmation that your referral has been accepted we will not remove you from the waiting list.

Current waiting information: (updated October 2024)

• The number of people currently waiting for their initial appointment: 4,687
• Number of referrals received in the last month: 68
• Number of people currently receiving treatment: 527
• The last people to have initial assessments were referred to the service in August 2016.
• Number of people who have been discharged in the last month: 15

If, while waiting, you are worried about your mental wellbeing then support is available from a variety of places as well as from your GP.