A mid-term review in 2022 by Dr Cass, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, led to the controversial closure of children’s gender services at the Tavistock Clinic and a ban on puberty blockers.
Dr Cass warned that the drug could permanently disrupt the maturation of young people’s brains and irreversibly rewire neural circuits.
Following her initial findings, the NHS launched a consultation to ban them, under which it proposed that doctors could prescribe them to children under 17 in “exceptional circumstances”.
Last month, in a move welcomed by ministers, the Health Service announced that NHS doctors would only be allowed to administer them to children in clinical trials, and would be prohibited in other circumstances.
However, the Telegraph can reveal that authorities made that decision because there is already a protocol in place allowing doctors to apply for treatments that are not routinely funded by the NHS. Can be done.
Doctors will be able to submit an ‘individual funding request’ to NHS England for a patient who they believe would benefit from treatment by specialist services, justifying why their ‘clinical circumstances are exceptional’. can.
“Loopholes are abominable.”
Dr Louise Irvine, a general practitioner and co-chair of the Sex and Gender Clinical Advisory Network, said it should be “impossible” for doctors to justify exceptional circumstances in prescribing puberty blockers. Stated. The deterrent is the lack of evidence of benefit. ”
Caroline Johnson, a pediatrician and member of the Conservative Party’s health select committee, said: “These drugs carry the risk of irreversible harm and irreversible change.
“If the NHS is planning to grant benefits to children on individual applications, the question is: what are the benefit thresholds that need to be met? How well do we need to understand the risks? ?What is the burden of proof?”
Conservative MP Nick Fletcher described the loophole as “abhorrent”.
“We shouldn’t give our children anything that inhibits their adolescence,” he said. “I have raised this issue many times and unfortunately many of our organizations have gotten caught up in this issue. We are setting young people up to suffer for the rest of their lives. is.”
Both MPs are among more than a dozen Conservatives backing Mr Truss’ bill to completely ban the controversial drug. But he has faced opposition over his policies, including protections for women’s gay spaces, and Labor was accused of filibustering when parliament ran out of time to debate his proposals last month. .
Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch said she wanted to support most of the bill but was blocked by ministers and instead accused Labor MPs of “wasting parliamentary time debating the choice of a name for a ferret”. Understood.
“Keir Starmer is afraid of the security debate and his MPs are actively working to ignore the concerns of their constituents,” she tweeted.
