Why are NHS gender clinic waiting times so long?

QueerAF Podcast: S7 E10 - listen now in your podcast app

Rachel Taylor MP told the UK Parliment, "waiting times for gender affirming healthcare are nothing short of a national scandal". Speaking, using almost word for word our reporting in the Gender Clinic Files - an investigation into the length of waiting times for NHS gender identity clinics (GICs) - she set out how 48,000 adults remain on waiting lists, with an average waiting time of 25 years. In one clinic, we found a 224-year wait if you joined the list in March, three times the average UK life expectancy. More than a lifetime of waiting.

This week on the QueerAF podcast, Ludovic Parsons looks back at the joint investigation we did with Claire's Trans Talks and What The Trans?! to ask: has anything changed - and more critically, what would a gender healthcare system built for Trans+ people, not cisgender doctors, even look like?

Dive deeper, with our investigations and long-reads into UK Trans+ Healthcare:

• The Gender Clinic Files - the full investigative series
• What would a healthcare system that works for Trans+ people look like in the UK?
• A brief history of how the UK’s broken Trans+ healthcare system only serves its cisgender doctors
• The clinical symposium where cisgender doctors formed the UK's gender identity clinic

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Behind the scenes, QueerAF's podcast is way more than about creating delightful sounds for your ears. The project is signposted by industry leaders and diversity initiatives because we help underrepresented queer voices build media, audio and podcast careers.

QueerAF memberships helps to directly fund the emerging LGBTQIA+ creatives we mentor - and the next series of the podcast. It lets us give them that crucial kickstart to their exciting career ahead.

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