A doctor who ran an unlicensed online clinic for transgender children ‘failed’ an 11-year-old patient transitioning from male to female by not fully explaining that drugs could cause fertility risks, a medical tribunal found today.
Dr Helen Webberley, founder of GenderGP, was accused of failing to provide good clinical care in 2016 to three patients, aged 11, 12 and 17, who were transitioning from female to male.
She failed 11-year-old Patient C by not discussing risks to fertility at a consultation before prescribing puberty blockers (GnHRa), a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) panel said today, June 28.
Her husband Dr Michael Webberley , who spent 34 years working for the NHS, was struck off in May this year for wrongly prescribing sex-change treatments to seven transgender patients.
His patients included one who was aged just nine and another a teenager who took their own life few months later.
The tribunal said: ‘The tribunal did not consider that Dr Webberley has developed sufficient understanding as to the significance of how she failed Patient C in regard to discussing fertility, and as to how she can be sure that this will not be repeated.’
She put her patients at ‘unwarranted risk of harm’ by failing to provide follow-up care, the panel said.
They found her fitness to practise was impaired by reason of her misconduct, which included failing to discuss risks to fertility with a patient, and on wider public interest grounds.
The tribunal, chaired by Angus Macpherson, found Dr Webberley’s actions amounted to serious misconduct in failing to provide adequate follow-up care to two patients, aged 12 and 17, who were prescribed testosterone.
