Local NHS Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) launches the country’s first online guide for supporting trans patients in GP surgeries.
The guide’s publication follows a recent Parliamentary inquiry into Transgender Equality in the UK, which published a report earlier this month claiming that:
♦ Trans people encounter significant problems in using general NHS services due to the attitude of some clinicians and other staff when providing care for trans patients
♦ This is attributable to lack of knowledge and understanding
♦ and GPs in particular too often lack an understanding of trans identities, the diagnosis of gender dysphoria, referral pathways into Gender Identity Services, and their own role in prescribing hormone treatment.
The CCG’s guide has been developed with input from local transgender people in Brighton and Hove and aims to help GPs and other clinical staff in General Practice support patients accessing NHS Specialist Gender Identity Services.
According to estimates, at least 2,760 trans people live in the city, with many more coming to the city to study and work.
Last year, Brighton & Hove City Council published the results of the city’s first ever Trans Needs Assessment.
The report revealed that:
♦ Just 1 in 5 trans people in the city said they were in good health (compared with four out of five in the wider population).
♦ Four in five had also experienced depression and one in three had self-harmed in the last five years.
♦ The assessment also identified that improvements could be made to trans people’s experience of health services, including local GP and specialist services, and that long waiting times for gender identity services had a detrimental impact on the lives of those affected.
The Needs Assessment recommended the development of good quality information for clinicians on support for trans people accessing healthcare in the city.
The experience of approaching a GP for advice and support can be daunting for many transgender people.
Local trans patient, Michael, explains: “When I first went to my GP’s surgery to seek support around my trans identity a number of years ago I was incredibly nervous. The locum GP I saw was, though well-meaning, not very well-informed. I remember him asking me if I liked cars and football – an entirely surreal line of questioning, unrelated to helping me access the support I needed. I left with an informal diagnosis of ‘metrosexual’ gender identity and (more helpfully) a forward referral which I’d had to instruct him in writing.
“Since then, I’ve been really pleased to see how much work has been done on a local and national level to improve services for trans people, and am proud to have played my small part in some of that work. I’m lucky to have a much more understanding and knowledgeable GP now than I did then, but am so pleased to see this guide being released as it will help all GPs across the city to offer a competent, supportive service to the trans community.
“So often we can find ourselves passed from pillar to post, having to educate those responsible for our care; I hope that this guide can help to relieve that burden – promoting a better standard of understanding, a better standard of communication and a better standard of care for everyone.”
Dr Katie Stead, Clinical Lead for Primary Care and Public Health at the CCG and a member of Brighton and Hove’s Trans Needs Assessment Steering Group, said: “This new guide is important because although there are many good examples of excellent primary care for our trans population, there is also a lack of education and information for GPs available both nationally and locally. We hope it goes some way in plugging this gap locally and will give GPs the confidence to work with trans patients to provide great care.”
NHS Brighton and Hove CCG has compiled a five-point checklist called 5 things you need to know when you speak to your GP, that addresses some of the concerns and scenarios trans patients may encounter when they visit their GP, drawing on the experiences of local trans patients.
To read the five point checklist, click here:
To read NHS Brighton and Hove CCG’s Trans Guidance Guide for GPs, click here:
To read the Transgender Equality in the UK was published by the Government Equalities Office in January 2016, click here:
You must be logged in to post a comment.