SNP ‘allowed trans activists to infiltrate’ NHS services

SNP ministers have been accused of allowing trans rights activists to infiltrate Scotland’s NHS and shape dangerous treatment rules that harm children.

Research by The Telegraph has identified more than 70 occasions in which LGBT campaigners were given roles allowing them to influence gender care in Scotland’s health service, despite a lack of any medical training or expertise.

The findings come after the Cass Report warned that ideology, rather than established medical practice, had shaped how gender healthcare was delivered to young people in England.

The damning report published this week by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass said children had been given potentially dangerous drugs such as puberty blockers and hormones, despite a lack of evidence of safety or effectiveness.

SNP ministers and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which runs the Sandyford gender clinic dubbed a “tartan Tavistock”, said they will review Dr Cass’s findings but have refused to commit to following her recommendations.

The “affirming” model of care being abandoned south of the border is still being delivered in Scotland with Humza Yousaf and the Scottish NHS also refusing to adopt England’s ban on puberty blockers.

Among the examples of activists’ influence in Scotland are formal roles in setting long-awaited trans treatment rules for Scotland, writing policies which would erode rights to single-sex hospital wards and being funded to run mental health services.

Scottish Trans, an influential lobby group, has also claimed credit for the Scottish NHS signing up to controversial treatment rules set by the US body WPATH, which Dr Cass said should not be used by the health service.

David Bell, the psychiatrist and whistleblower who first raised concerns about the Tavistock in London, said it was “patently obvious” that partisan campaigners should not have a “seat at the table” when NHS gender policies were being set.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Engagement with stakeholders, including those that could be impacted by service or policy change, is standard practice in the public sector.