More than 1,000 children at the NHS‘s controversial child transgender clinic were handed prescriptions for puberty blockers, a new book has claimed, as former staff compare it to the ‘doping of East German athletes’.
The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in London will close later this year after being slammed in a report amid accusations it was rushing children onto puberty blocking drugs.
Now former clinicians at the service have revealed how ‘incredibly complex’ children were handed he life-altering drugs after just one assessment – despite having a multitude of mental health or background issues.
GIDS was formerly the sole provider of gender dysphoria and gender identity services for children and young people across the whole of the UK.
The controversial clinic treated at least 9,000 children for gender dysphoria from when it opened in 1989, but a review led by senior paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass warned it was that ‘it has become increasingly clear that a single specialist provider model is not a safe or viable long-term option’.
