Legal fight over gender clinic treating over-16s

Ex-nurse's challenge to watchdog over first centre of its kind

- CALLUM PARKE Special Correspondent

A DECISION by the health watchdog to register private gender clinic in Birmingham to provide treatment for young people is being challenged in the High Court.

Ex-nurse Susan Evans and an unnamed mother are taking legal action against the Care Quality Commission (CQC) over its decision to register the Gender Plus Hormone Clinic, in Edgbaston, run by Gender Plus Healthcare.

The clinic treats people aged 16 and older, including through prescribing gender-affirming - masculinising or feminising - hormones.

It was set up by Dr Aidan Kelly and is led by nurse consultant Paul Carruthers, who both worked at the now-closed Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

The service said patients were mainly aged between 16 and 25, and that while the clinic operates out of Birmingham, patients could also have appointments in London and Leeds.

The service does not prescribe puberty blockers, which are also not prescribed on the NHS to children for the treatment of gender dysphoria after a ban last year was made permanent in December with the agreement of devolved governments across the UK.

The CQC is defending the claim, heard by Mrs Justice Eady over two days at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this week.

Opening the women's case, barrister Tom Cross KC said the clinic was believed to be the only hormone treatment provider to 16 and 17-year-olds in England, and that the claimants' concern was about safety, with Ms Evans stating she believed the registration “creates a significant risk of a two-tier approach”.