Sinn Fein breakthrough may lead to expansion of controversial NHS transgender health project

Sinn Fein’s general election breakthrough in Ireland could lead to an expansion of a controversial NHS transgender health project that has been accused of providing ‘unsuitable’ hormone drugs for mentally-ill Irish children.

The republican party – which won more votes than any of its rivals last weekend – embraced the trans-rights movement to appeal to young voters. 

It pledged to make it easier for trans people to get hormone treatments to support their gender transition.

That could lead to more focus on an arrangement involving NHS staff from the Tavistock Clinic in London which treats hundreds of young British people a year who are said to be transgender, some as young as four.

Some are prescribed hormone-blocking drugs that delay the onset of puberty.

The Tavistock has been sending clinicians to Dublin to run out-patient clinics at a children’s hospital there, the CHC.

Their work has been criticised by some senior Irish doctors who have claimed the British medics were ‘overdiagnosing’ gender dysphoria, allegedly leading to treatment that can involve hormone-suppressing drugs.

Some cases, critics claim, involve children who were unsuitable due to mental health issues.

Ireland has only a few medics trained in transgender issues and has engaged the Tavistock via the EU-funded Treatment Abroad Scheme.

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust said its work in Dublin saves ‘patients and families travelling to London’.

Now its work there may expand. 

Sinn Fein’s LGBT manifesto said it wished to ‘ensure Dublin-based transgender healthcare services provide regular operation beyond the Dublin region’.