Trans training course ‘that pressurised GPS’ dropped

A TRANS training course for doctors has been scrapped by the Royal College of General Practitioners after members complained it placed “unrealistic expectations” on them.

The college said GPS had complained of feeling under pressure to recommend gender reassignment partly as a result of the online package, which was written by a transgender activist charity. Provided by the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES), the course had been hosted on the college’s website since 2015.

However, the college has now removed it after it unilaterally amended parts of the wording, prompting a row with the charity.

The RCGP said its members had complained that the guidelines detailing how to treat patients interested in gender reassignment were “not sufficiently clear” and “risked creating unrealistic expectations for patients regarding the role of the GP in initiating treatment”.

The body said GPS should not have to fill in for a lack of specialist services for patients with gender dysphoria.

“We understand that access to specialist gender reassignment services in the NHS is inadequate, and that this is incredibly frustrating for trans patients and their families,” said Dr Jonathan Leach, the college’s honorary secretary. “But GPS should not have to bear the brunt of poor access to specialist services by being put in a position where they are being asked to prescribe treatment that they are not trained to prescribe or monitor safely without expert support.”

GIRES, which paid the college £7,837 to host the online course, said it could not agree to alterations made “in direct contravention of NHS and General Medical Council guidelines”. It says 5 per cent of the population, roughly 3.3 million people, are “gender- diverse”. The Government Equalities Office estimates the number of trans people to be 200,000-500,000.

In 2017, NHS England published a consultation on gender identity services, following a row between the GP Committee and GMC over GPS’ concerns that they were being forced to prescribe to gender dysphoria patients without the necessary expertise.

The GP Committee responded by advising its members to ignore GMC guidance on the matter. “Feedback from college members was that this was not sufficiently clear in our elearning module on gender variance, and that this risked creating unrealistic expectations for patients regarding the role of the GP in initiating treatment,” Dr Leach said.

“This is why we decided to review and change the course, and ultimately withdraw the course when our partners did not accept these changes.”

He said the RCGP was developing a new course, to be launched this year.