People seeking help from England’s biggest NHS gender help clinic must wait four years to see a specialist.
The Charing Cross Gender Identity Clinic is currently booking appointments for those referred to it in October 2017.
Figures show 8,745 were on the waiting list on April 1, up from 3,274 since 2018 – a rise of 167%.
Among them was trans activist Sophie Gwen Williams, 28, who died in May after waiting on an NHS list for five-and-a-half years – and being told she faced another four-year delay after going to the bottom of the list due to relocating from Belfast to London.
Loved ones said in a statement: “How is any working-class trans person supposed to survive nearly a decade amid a maelstrom of gender dysphoria and the repeated mental health crises it brings? It’s a howling injustice.”
The clinic is the biggest of seven in England. Others are in Northumberland, Nottingham, Sheffield, Devon, Northants and Leeds.
Cara English of the Gendered Intelligence charity said wait times were “unsustainable and cruel”.
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Charing Cross GIC in North London, apologised and said they were working with the NHS to address the issue.
The NHS said funding had doubled in the past five years, adding: “Demand continues to rise as more people feel able to come forward for support and treatment.”
