We know that some of you may be aware that St Peter’s Andrology Centre, the team that provides phalloplasty and metoidioplasty surgery (masculinising genital surgery), reached the end of their contract recently. This means that at the minute, there is no surgical provider across the UK for these procedures. We asked the NHS about this and received the following reply:

Thank you for your enquiry about St Peter’s Andrology Centre.

You may be aware that the St Peter’s Andrology Centre is a partnership of three individuals that has historically sub-contracted with hospital sites and with surgical teams to deliver the specialised services under NHS Scotland’s service specification.

As of April 2021 St Peter’s Andrology Centre had not secured a contract with a hospital site for the provision of operating theatres, theatre staff, and other core infrastructure requirements for a safe surgical service. As St Peter’s does not directly own hospital facilities, such a contract was fundamental to enabling the surgeons contracted by St Peter’s to safely perform surgical procedures and to deliver related inpatient care.

Given the backdrop of the pandemic which impacted elective surgery across the UK, the NHS commissioners in all four health administrations, acting jointly, had given St Peter’s ample time to resolve this situation. The health service in all four UK nations is now acting without delay to secure a provider to enable surgery to resume. That process is now well underway with different providers being able to bid for the contract providing they can demonstrate they have suitable hospital facilities available.

NHS Scotland commissioners are liaising with the Scottish GICs to help identify the patients who might be affected and will be asking the GICs to notify them once alternative arrangements are in place. If any patient in Scotland has concerns about their treatment they should contact their GIC.

If you’ve been referred to St Peter’s, or if you are in the middle of a multi-stage procedure, you should be contacted directly about your individual circumstances in the next few weeks.

The hope is that there will be a decision about a new provider as soon as possible – and we will keep you posted about any updates we hear.

We know that people will be worried about this, and if you want to talk to someone about how you are feeling then you can contact:

TransActual, who are organising a peer support group: transactualuk@gmail.com

If anyone based in Edinburgh and the Lothians needs support around this, please reach out to Ryan at LGBT Health & Wellbeing: ryan@lgbthealth.org.uk

LGBT Health & Wellbeing’s LGBT Helpline: Tuesday & Wednesday, 12 – 9pm, Thursday & Sunday, 1 – 6pm

0300 123 2523

https://www.lgbthealth.org.uk/services-support/lgbt-mental-health/lgbt-helpline-scotland

MindLine Trans+: Mondays & Fridays 8pm – Midnight

0300 330 5468

https://mindlinetrans.org.uk/

And as the message above says, if you have any questions or concerns about your treatment, you should get in touch directly with your GIC.