Whistleblower sues NHS trans clinic for ‘putting children at risk’
Psychotherapist ‘frozen out and vilified’
A WHISTLEBLOWER is suing the NHS’s only child transgender clinic after claiming that it put patients at risk.
Sonia Appleby alleges that she was frozen out by senior staff after highlighting concerns about the wellbeing of those being treated.
The psychotherapist, who is in charge of safeguarding children, said that she was ‘vilified’ for asking questions about the safety of youngsters using the gender identity development service (GIDS).
The London clinic has faced controversy about the medical treatment it provides to transgender children as well as its treatment of whistleblowers.
Safeguarding roles such as Ms Appleby’s exist so that clinicians and staff from other departments can raise concerns to be investigated regarding patient welfare.
Ms Appleby’s decision to sue the trust is all the more unusual given that it still employs her. She launched the legal bid in 2019, which has been backed by £120,000 in donations from the public.
In December, a High Court judge ruled that under-16s were unlikely to be mature enough to give informed consent to be treated with puberty-blocking drugs.
One of the claimants who brought the case was Keira Bell, a 23-yearold woman who started taking the drugs when she was 16 but has now started to de-transition. She has accused the gender clinic of ‘playing God with our bodies’ and insists she should have been more rigorously scrutinised before treatment.
The Tavistock is appealing against the court’s decision.
Ms Appleby insists that she is not bringing an ‘anti-trans’ case against the trust. She wrote online: ‘I am supportive of the transgender community and their right to seek services that are both supportive and safe.’
But she said the gender service ‘needs to be transparent and open to safeguarding commentary’.
Her legal bid at the London Central Employment Tribunal centres on a claim that she ‘suffered a detriment’ after blowing the whistle.
Ms Appleby says that she raised concerns with her line manager after receiving complaints from clinic staff, who said the health and safety of patients was at risk.
She alleged that the trust then ‘misused its own procedures to besmirch’ her, putting her safeguarding function at risk.
The NHS worker said there had been an ‘unwritten but mandated directive’ not to raise safeguarding concerns with her.
She wrote online: ‘Clinicians were discouraged from reporting safeguarding concerns to me.’
Last week, she updated her crowdfunding page, writing: ‘My claim is organised around the basic tenets of NHS safety being upheld in any service, and those who raise concerns about risks and safeguarding should not be vilified.’
A spokesman for the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘ The trust strongly refutes the claims. It will vigorously defend its position in the employment tribunal.
‘The trust does not accept that it has penalised anyone for raising concerns. GIDS is recognised by the [Care Quality Commission] as treating “concerns and complaints seriously” and learning from them.’
The tribunal case, which began yesterday, continues.
‘Discouraged from reporting concerns’