NEGATIVE media attention has made it difficult for Scotland’s gender identity healthcare services to retain and recruit staff, a report has said.
In Scotland, there are four adult gender identity clinics (GICs), in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lothian, NHS Grampian, and NHS Highland. There is one service for young people, based in Glasgow.
A report commissioned by the Scottish Government analysed the impact of spending to improve gender identity healthcare, but revealed “politicised” debates and media focus on transgender healthcare are having a negative impact.
Since 2022, health boards have received £3.6 million in funding, while clinics are still facing “significant demand” with long waiting lists.
The report highlights that one issue impacting this is negative media attention is making it harder to recruit and retain staff to work in gender identity services.
It states that across all four clinics, negative media and political attention has contributed to “fear and uncertainty amongst patients as well as some staff”.
The Glasgow Sandyford clinic, it adds, has seen the most media attention which has fed into “feelings of stress and even fear for staff working in clinics”.
"Sandyford has been at the centre of public attention more than the other GICs, creating additional stress for staff currently working within the clinic,” the report states.
“Staff members have significant concerns about ‘their names appearing in the papers’, and newspapers ‘plucking’ staff members’ names ‘out of thin air’, which unfortunately has already happened for some of the team members.
“This, unsurprisingly, has a detrimental effect on the ability to hire staff into the service.
“In the words of one interviewee: ‘you are not going to give up your permanent contract to come and work in the gender service when you could end up on the front of the Daily Record’.”
The report added that “incentivisation” may be required to improve recruitment into the service, as well as prioritising staff wellbeing.
It also revealed that, as the Sandyford clinic had been the focus of protests outside the building, this had been linked to problems with recruiting staff, especially for the youth clinic.
The Scottish Family Party, a fringe group who are also anti-abortion, have repeatedly targeted the site.
The report adds: “As the only dedicated YP [Young People] gender service serving the whole of Scotland, it has faced increasing demand for services, challenges of staff recruitment and retention, and negative publicity due to the polarisation of debates around gender services for young people.
“On top of this, the service has also been significantly affected by the publication of the Cass Review in NHS England, and the Scottish Government [chief medical officer's] response to that review with regard to implications for Scotland.”
The Cass Review recommended that puberty-suppressing hormones, also called puberty blockers, should be paused until further clinical trials are done, essentially banning their use for under-18s.
The Scottish Government accepted the findings of the review, undertaken by Dr Hilary Cass (below), who was later made a member of the House of Lords, in 2024.
Self-referral by young people will also be stopped, and instead they must be referred to gender identity services by a clinician.
We previously told how research by an international team of more than 20 experts concluded the Cass review was “deeply flawed”, containing biased research, outdated data, and manipulated evidence.
The Scottish Government report suggests that increasing demand for services, coupled with recruitment issues, has had an impact on delivery.
“This has meant that service improvements have not been fully felt by service users, who still face long waiting lists,” it adds.
