Question reference: S6W-26405
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 22 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 19 April 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns that children and young people in England who are waiting to receive puberty suppressing hormones (PSH) may relocate to Scotland to procure these treatments, in light of NHS England's decision that PSH "are not available as a routine commissioning treatment option for treatment of children and young people who have gender incongruence / gender dysphoria".
Answer
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Young People’s Gender Service only accepts referrals from individuals residing in Scotland.
On 18 April, in a joint statement, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian confirmed that both Boards have paused any new prescription of puberty-supressing hormones and cross-sex hormones for young people as a treatment option for gender dysphoria.
The small number of patients directly impacted by this change, and their families, were notified in advance of this statement. It is right that they were the first to hear about it, sensitively and from the services caring for them, before a public statement was made.