Children who buy trans drugs face police alert
New NHS guidelines say purchases from online pharmacies should trigger ‘safeguarding protocols’
Children who buy puberty blockers could be referred to police or social services under leaked guidelines drafted by NHS England. The new protocol would mean local authorities being alerted for safeguarding intervention when young people obtain hormone therapies or puberty blockers on the private market. The years-long wait for medical treatment has prompted some young people to seek medication through unregulated online pharmacies, or privately.
CHILDREN who buy puberty blockers could be referred to police or social services under new NHS proposals, leaked plans suggest.
NHS England has drafted new guidelines which would see local authorities alerted in cases where young people obtain hormone therapies or puberty blockers on the private market.
The guidelines, which have not been made public, are part of a review of the treatment of young transgender people seeking care under the NHS.
Children wishing to transition can do so with medical intervention, but the years-long wait for treatment has prompted some young people to seek medication through unregulated online pharmacies, or privately.
According to the document, seen by Reuters, NHS professionals can advise a patient’s primary care doctor to instigate “safeguarding protocols” if they decide they should not be taking hormones or blockers obtained privately.
Safeguarding teams are made up of police and medical and social services professionals responsible for ensuring a child’s safety and wellbeing.
The NHS previously “strongly discouraged” people from purchasing medication to change gender online. Dr Stephen Powis, NHS England medical director, said last week: “No one should be purchasing illegal, unknown and potentially life-threatening drugs online.”
The new proposals, according to Reuters, would give the NHS far stricter oversight of young people wishing to change gender.
Other changes in the draft guidelines are said to include: allowing only NHS professionals to refer young people for gender care, having clinics staffed with teams endowed with wider professional experience, and requiring meetings between referring staff and a clinic to establish if gender clinics are the best option for treatment.
The NHS is dissolving the only gender care clinic for children in England, the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust, from spring 2023.
It was shut down after being criticised in an interim report by Dr Hilary Cass, who is leading an independent review of gender identity services for children and young people.
The average waiting time to see gender care professionals is now around three years.
A spokesperson for NHS England declined to comment on the guidelines.
Cleo Madeleine, spokesman for Gendered Intelligence, a national transgender-led charity which provides training, support and policy advice, said the charity did not want to comment directly on the draft document.
However, she told Reuters that any new guidelines must avoid a “rehash” of the current system, which has “so many administrative barriers and capacity issues that it became unsustainable”.