The Sandyford Gender Service has announced that it will stop allowing people to self-refer on to its waiting list.

Previously, it was the only gender service in Scotland (and we’re pretty sure across the whole of the UK) that allowed you to do so.

We know that people liked being able to self-refer to the service: it meant that if you were worried that your GP was not going to be supportive about your referral, or might not know very much about gender identity services, that there was no potential extra barrier in place to getting yourself onto the waiting list.

And we found in our research (which we published at the end of last month) that those fears are fair ones – with people describing encountering difficulties with getting GP referrals.

We’ve asked the Sandyford if they’ll be providing guidance to GPs on how to make timely, supportive referrals to them – particularly as GPs in the healthboards that they cover are probably less used to people approaching them to be referred.

However, this whole issue – whether you can self-refer on to the list, or require a referral – is clearly not even close to the biggest one with accessing gender affirming healthcare in Scotland.

We think that the most important things that urgently need to change are:

• Every child and young person being able to access the care that is right for them, at the time that is right for them
• Extremely long waiting lists
• Services that are person-centred, flexible, and supportive, and work with trans people to make sure we get the care we need to live happy and healthy lives

That’s what we’ll be talking to the Minister for Women’s Health and Public Health about when we meet with her in September, and what we’ll continue pushing for through all of our work to improve trans people’s access to healthcare in Scotland.

You can find out more on what’s going on with healthcare in Scotland and what more we think needs to be done in our accessible guide here: https://www.scottishtrans.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Whats-happening-with-trans-healthcare-in-Scotland-2024-06-17.pdf