The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been selected to run a 3-year pilot that will evaluate the delivery of specialised gender dysphoria services for adults (over 17) in a non-specialist setting.

The new service will be based at 56 Dean Street, an award-winning NHS HIV and sexual health clinic in Soho, Central London. The development of the pilot is part of NHS England’s ambitious programme of work to increase clinical capacity in the national gender dysphoria service, and by doing so improve access and address waiting times.

People using the service will see a team of multi-skilled professionals that will include established expertise in gender dysphoria healthcare. The service will deliver a range of interventions such as assessment, diagnosis, hormone therapy, voice therapy and referral for surgery and signposting to other holistic services.

During the pilot phase, access to the service will initially be given to people who were registered as patients of the Trust’s HIV/GUM service at 1 January 2020, and priority will be given to patients who are on a waiting list at an established Gender Dysphoria Clinic.

The service will work to an adaptation of NHS England’s national service specification for non-surgical services, which states that access to the NHS pathway of care will be dependent on a clinical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

The service expects to see the first patients in spring 2020. Further details will be available soon around the arrangements for identifying eligible patients.

Over time, the aim is for people with gender dysphoria to be able to access specialist expertise in other local health settings around the country. In support of this, NHS England will also establish further pilots during 2020. This includes a service rooted in primary care in Greater Manchester, the model for which has been developed as an outcome of stakeholder feedback gathered there in 2018 and 2019. Further pilots around the country are also being explored.

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