The mum of a trans woman who took her own life has said that transgender patients facing a years-long wait for NHS gender care are being handed a “death sentence”.
Responding to data obtained by the BBC Newsnight, which found it would take 10 years to clear the backlog of people waiting for first appointments in gender care, the mother of Alice Litman, who committed suicide while waiting for treatment, called for urgent changes to NHS care.
Brighton resident Alice Litman, 20, took her own life in May 2022 while on a waiting list to be seen by a NHS gender clinic. Her mother says the figures show there “is no care for trans people”.
Alice had been on the waiting list for Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust‘s gender clinic for more than three years when she was found dead. A coroner subsequently ruled the long waiting times to access gender care had directly contributed to her death.
Newsnight sent freedom of information requests to all 13 NHS trusts who operate adult gender clinics in the UK, asking how long patients would wait for a first appointment if they were referred today.
The majority of clinics told BBC they would only provide data on how long patients they were currently seeing had waited.
This ranged from just over 14 months in Wales, to between two to five years in Scotland, more than five years in Northern Ireland, and an average of seven years in England.
Further analysis of NHS data by BBC News suggested some may now face longer waits due to growing waiting lists.
A spokesperson of NHS England said it has “increased investment in gender services by about 130% over the past five years”.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson added it was “making progress to tackle waiting lists for adult gender services amid unprecedented demand”.
Ms Litman, mother of Alice, says Alice became “withdrawn” and “closed off” while waiting.
“I think she felt like she didn’t matter. And it kind of fed into this hopelessness and helplessness that she had about her future, living in a society that didn’t really value her enough to offer her timely treatment.
“I think a lot of the time she put on a brave face; she tried her very hardest to live.” The 56-year-old added it felt like Alice was in a “holding cell” rather than a waiting list, saying it was a “death sentence”.
Last year, coroners in three cases – including Alice’s – ruling that waiting times to access gender care had contributed to a patient’s death.
