Waiting list/waiting times

We know a lot of people are concerned about the waiting times for the Northern Region Gender Dysphoria Service (NRGDS), and we hope this page will give you some useful information.

We will update this page regularly when we have new information to share about waiting times and the work we are doing to make them shorter.

How long can I expect to wait to be seen?

As of August 2023, the person who has been waiting the longest for their first assessment appointment has waited 65 months (5 years and 5 months) so far, and is currently still waiting for their appointment. (We will update this figure every four months.)

If you are already in treatment and are transferring your care into the NRGDS from another adult NHS gender identity clinic, then the current wait time to be seen by us is about four months.

We cannot accurately predict whether waiting times will go up or down in the future, because it depends on several things including:

• How many people are referred to us
• How many staff are working in the service
• What needs people have once in the service (some people need more regular contact with us than others)
• The rate that people pass through the service (people need to go at a pace that is right for them)
• How long people have to wait for surgeries (please see below)

You might have seen people and organisations quoting potential waiting times of 40+ years for initial assessment if we were to carry on seeing people on our waiting list at our current rate.

We want to reassure you that this is not an accurate reflection of how long people will wait to be seen by the NRGDS.

This 40+ year figure is based on data gathered using Freedom of Information Requests (FOIs) about our average numbers of appointments per month and the numbers currently on our waiting list. It assumes that nothing about the service or the way we work will change to improve the number of people we can see each month. But this is not the case. We are working closely with NHS England, who commission us to provide the NRGDS, to make changes that will enable to us to see and support more people. This has included recruiting more staff, such as peer supporters who help people while they are on the waiting list. In August 2023 we took the difficult decision to pause referrals to our service, to enable us to do this work. You can read more about the pause in referrals here.

We sincerely apologise for these lengthy waiting times, and for the distress this may cause. We have put together a webpage listing mental health services and helplines, and a leaflet of local, national and online support for transgender and non-binary people.

Impact on NRGDS of waiting times for surgery

Some of the people who the NRGDS supports are waiting for surgery. This surgery is provided by another NHS organisation, not CNTW, and is also experiencing significant backlogs. We see these people every six months, to check on their wellbeing and offer updates and support where we can. This is important to do, but it does mean we have fewer appointments available for initial assessments.

While referrals are paused, we expect many of these people will go on to receive their surgery and no longer need regular appointments with NRGDS. This means appointments will be freed up to offer more people initial assessments.

Let us know if you cannot attend your appointment

It is important that you let us know as soon as possible, at least 24 hours in advance, if you cannot attend your appointment. This is so that we can offer that appointment to someone else. Unused appointments add to waiting time for other people wishing to use the service.

Unfortunately, some people do not attend their appointments without letting us know in advance. From April 2022 to March 290 appointments were not attended. That is 12.7% of all the appointments we offered.

If you need to cancel an appointment for any reason, please email us at [email protected]

Due to the high demand for our service, if you are repeatedly unable to attend your appointments (or do not attend for three appointments in a row) and we do not hear from you in advance to cancel them, we will have to discharge you from our service. It is important to know that failure to attend your appointments, and being discharged from the service, may affect your treatment pathway, including any surgery we have referred you for.

If you are not able to attend on several occasions, even if you let us know in advance, we may contact you to talk about whether this is the right time for you to use the service.