On Monday, NHS Wales joint commissioning body’s Quality, Safety and Outcomes committee met to discuss the Welsh Gender Service. Last week this website revealed that WGS had been designated a “potential Service of Concern” due to “issues identified through ongoing review and assurance processes”. These included “higher rates of surgical referral than seen in comparable services in England and concerns regarding referral appropriateness”. The higher rates of surgical referral were first highlighted by this website in May.
On Tuesday I received a message from NHS Wales telling me “The issues identified through our review and assurance processes have now been considered… Following the conclusion of yesterday’s meeting, our first responsibility is to ensure patients are informed before any wider communication takes place.”
This felt like a suggestion that a significant decision had been taken. The NHS Wales communiqué continued: “We recognise the public interest in this matter and are committed to providing a full and factual account once patients have been informed. and we’re sure you’ll understand why it’s important to do this first. The necessary communications are being prepared following the QSOC meeting and will share our full statement with you, including the outcome of the meeting and the agreed next steps, as soon as possible.”
I asked if the above meant that WGS had been elevated to an actual Service of Concern (a formal NHS designation, meaning there has been “significant singular service failures, or cumulative or systemic concerns regarding a service or setting”) and if so, whether surgery referrals and scheduled surgeries had been suspended. I got no response.
Reddit, didn’t necessarily believe it
Yesterday we started seeing messages appear on TransgenderUK Reddit from posters purporting to be WGS patients or their friends/partners. The lead poster said: “I’ve just got word that a friend of a friend had their top surgery cancelled just before going into theatre. This is because of a review into the Welsh Gender Service following the tory complaint that they are too effective at referring people. This has been confirmed by the Welsh Gender Service (I called them), but they don’t know to what extent this is occurring or what it means for others on the waiting list (like me). They said they’d call me back when they get more info from the commissioner (today or tomorrow). If you are a fellow Welshy then you might want to start making some phone calls.”
The “tory complaint” is likely a reference to Natasha Asghar MS’ question to the Welsh Health Minister in the Senedd or the quote she gave me for my last piece about the WGS, which was used again in the Sunday Times piece about the WGS at the weekend.
Here are some of the replies to yesterday’s original post on Reddit:
- “Girlfriend just had a call to cancel her surgery. It was tomorrow. Everyone is cancelled no matter how far along you got… She’s still on the surgery’s list but they can’t proceed until the review of the Welsh gender service concludes and actions are taken.”
- “This happened to my partner today, too. They were supposed to have top surgery tomorrow morning but got a call this morning to say it’s been cancelled. My partner is devastated and heartbroken. They’ve been waiting 5+ years already.”
- “My partner’s top surgery was cancelled with less than twelve hours warning. We’re devastated. We had accommodation booked and medical leave arranged and everything. No idea when/if he’ll get his surgery now. The receptionist for the surgery team at Manchester said it was the Welsh Gender Service’s “fault” for “not processing their patients correctly” and told us to just “check the news”.”
I would take all these messages with a pinch of salt. Anyone can say anything on Reddit, but it got people asking questions.
Comms Imminent
Ben Sears is a counsellor who has written knowledgeably about the governance of the Welsh Gender Service on X. He first raised the alarm about the WGS three years ago. Sears posted today that he had it on “good authority” WGS gender surgeries are being cancelled. A source I have inside Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (which has direct responsibility for the WGS) told me “Patients have been contacted by English orgs to advise of cancellations. WGS comms imminent.”
I sincerely hope hard information is released today, though as one NHS comms professional (not part of the team that would make any announcement about WGS) told me “to announce en masse before a bank holiday is not the kind of things senior leaders and comms people like to do – who wants to spend their bank holiday answering hard media queries when you are in charge of the timing…?”
The same person was also extremely skeptical that these cancellations would be happening in the way being described. So this could all be a massive false alarm.
Other WGS news
The activist Dr Sophie Quinney is no longer Clinical Director at the Welsh Gender Service. She still works there, but the NHS declined to renew her contract as Clinical Director in April, shortly after she was filmed grabbing a videographer’s phone out of his hand at a trans activist rally. There is no evidence this is anything more than a coincidence.
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board told me her replacement is Dr Kate Nambiar and “Dr Quinney continues to work within the Welsh Gender Service in her substantive clinical role as a Gender Clinician.”
We have no information about the wholly separate independent review of the Welsh Gender Service which was commissioned in July 2024. It was due to commence imminently and was expected to report before the end of the year. If WGS has become a Service of Concern, it has to be reviewed to see if patient safety has been compromised. Whether the long-awaited independent review would then be dropped or folded into any wider process is a mystery. I am sure all will become clearer when NHS Wales make their announcement about WGS.
I am deeply grateful to the people who have spoken to me for this piece. My work is entirely funded by donation. If you would like to make a one-off or regular monthly contribution and receive the Gender Blog newsletter and blog posts in your email inbox you can sign up here. Your email address will be stored securely and confidentially, never given to a third party and will only be used to inform you about things I think are interesting. If you have a story, please use the contact form. All messages go directly and securely to my email inbox and will be dealt with in the utmost confidence.
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