NHS Wales has temporarily cancelled all ‘sex-swap’ surgeries over safety concerns.
Following a report that “disproportionately higher numbers per population” were being referred by the Wales Gender Service (WGS) for “masculising and/or feminising surgery” compared with other UK nations, all surgeries have been cancelled until an independent clinical review has established the systems of referral are safe and appropriate.
Surgery referral rates in Wales were almost four times as high as in England last year, sparking “concerns regarding referral appropriateness”.
Clinically-led
The NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee said the surgery cancellations were a “precautionary and clinically-led step to ensure that referrals for gender surgery are supported by robust quality, safety and clinical governance arrangements”.
The Executive Medical Director at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, David Fluck, said: “The pause applies specifically to referrals for gender affirming surgery, surgical assessments and surgery.
“Other elements of care provided by the Welsh Gender Service, including hormone therapy support, endocrine review and psychological support services, continue to operate and are not affected by this decision.”
Irreversible procedures
The Welsh Conservatives’ spokeswoman for health, Natasha Asghar, called for the review to establish that the WGS was not just “rubber-stamping” people for surgery without proper checks.
She said: “When one service is referring people for irreversible procedures at three or four times the UK average, there has to be proper scrutiny of why that is happening.”
“Before anyone undergoes an irreversible procedure, we need to be absolutely confident that the system is asking the right questions and putting patients’ long-term interests first.”
Serious allegations
Dan Thomas, leader of Reform UK Wales, commented: “It is essential that the review examines not merely the non-surgical pathway in general, but the clinical decision-making that leads to surgical referrals.
“I have also received serious allegations about the conduct of WGS staff, including claims that patients were encouraged to distance themselves from family members who questioned proposed intervention.”
He added: “These allegations must be examined as part of the review where there is an appropriate evidential basis.”
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