Minister to meet doctors over HSE’s continued use of Tavistock clinic

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly is to meet doctors from the National Gender Service (NGS) later this month over their concerns about the Health Service Executive’s decision to continue referring children to the Tavistock Clinic in the UK.

Last Thursday, psychiatrists Dr Paul Moran and Dr Ian Schneider, along with endocrinologists Dr Karl Neff and Prof Donal O’Shea, wrote to Mr Donnelly, and said in light of the HSE’s determination to continue sending Irish children to the Tavistock GIDS for gender treatment, “despite the overwhelming evidence that this clinic is unsafe, and the decision of the NHS to close it, we request an urgent meeting with you to further discuss the risk this presents to Irish children”.

Earlier this month, an interim report by Dr Hillary Cass found staff at Tavistock felt “under pressure” to adopt an “unquestioning affirmative approach” to gender that was at odds with standard clinical assessment processes.

Questioning the evidence based around “all aspects of gender care” in Britain, Dr Cass said there were “significant knowledge gaps” around the use of puberty blockers in children and called for more research in the area.