Up to 72 children from Ireland remain on the waiting list of the Tavistock gender identity clinic in the UK, which was the subject of a critical review and is being wound down, it emerged yesterday.

The clinic had seen numerous medical staff resign in protest that some children were inappropriately diagnosed, given hormone treatments prematurely and put on a path to irreversible surgical interventions.

One former patient, Keira Bell, took a case against the clinic saying she had not been challenged enough about her decision to change sex. She was prescribed puberty blockers aged 16, then received testosterone shots a year later, and aged 20 had a double mastectomy.

A lack of services here meant Ireland was heavily reliant on the service for psychological assessment, and 233 children were referred there since 2012.

The HSE report, which examined the care of Irish children in the Tavistock service, said it could find no evidence any were fast-tracked on to hormonal treatments.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said it is setting up a group this year to develop an updated model of care for the treatment of gender dysphoria.