Gender Dysphoria_Private Medical Providers_NHS England Guidance

NHS England has issued guidance on “Primary Care Responsibilities In Regard To Requests by Private On-Line Medical Service Providers to Prescribe Hormone Treatments for Transgender People”

The guidance refers to GMC guidance on treating Trans patients and includes the following advice:

• A request by a private on-line medical service that a GP accepts responsibility for prescribing endocrine treatments for trans and non-binary people, and for testing and monitoring, may be no different from what an NHS-commissioned specialised Gender Identity Clinic may request under current commissioning arrangements.
• GPs are therefore advised to consider each request on a case-by-case basis to satisfy themselves that: (i) the request is from a reputable company that provides a safe and effective service; and (ii) the circumstances of the request for the particular individual meets the general principles of the General Medical Council’s “Good Practice in Prescribing and Managing Medicines and Devices”; and (iii) that the health professional making the request is an appropriate “gender specialist” (the term that is used in the General Medical Council guidance).
• GPs may also wish to consider the criteria set out in NHS England’s current commissioning protocol and relevant clinical commissioning policies.