Gender services review not 'kicking can down the road' - health minister

Mike Nesbitt says the review by Dr Hilary Cass would take days to complete so would not cause unnecessary delays

The health minister has defended a decision to have Dr Hilary Cass review Northern Ireland's gender identity services and denied he was "kicking the can down the road".

Dr Cass is the author of the landmark Cass Review, an independent report into gender identity services for under-18s, which was published last year by being commissioned by NHS England.

In July, Mike Nesbitt's department faced criticism from some unionist politicians after more than £800,000 was allocated to gender identity provision in Northern Ireland.

Others politicians, including Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir of the Alliance Party, have questioned the need for another review.

Nesbitt said it was right to have Dr Cass review the services before the money was spent.

He also said the review would take days to complete so would not cause unnecessary delays, after concerns were raised about how it would effect people waiting for services.

On the allocation of £800,000 to gender identity provision in Northern Ireland, Nesbitt said: "If Dr Cass and her team say that is the right thing to do then we will find the money.

"We're confident that we are Cass compliant, but I think that it is a sensible step to take to ask Dr Cass herself, who is more than willing to undertake the work – for free - to come over and just quality assure what we are proposing."

'Health service there for everybody' - Nesbitt

The Cass Review in England said that children had been "let down" by the lack of reliable evidence on medicine for those questioning their gender and found that there were "gaps in evidence" about the use of puberty blockers..

Earlier this week, LGBTQ+ charity The Rainbow Project said the minister "must deliver what he has promised" and that he "cannot hide behind another review" while transgender people were "languishing on waiting lists".

However, Nesbitt said: "This is about doing the right thing for people who have issues with their gender and making sure that is clinically and medically as good as it can be.

"I don't think a two-day rapid review is kicking the can down the road."

In response to criticism from some unionist politicians about the allocation of the funding, the health minister said: "If we are only going to offer a health service to people we approve of, I'm out – it's there for everybody.

"It's going to be mostly psychiatric and psychological support. It's going to be multi-disciplinary."

He added: "Who is better to say whether this is compliant to the Cass recommendations than Cass herself?"

The Belfast Health Trust runs the Brackenburn Clinic, based in south Belfast, which has a service for adults experiencing gender dysphoria and a separate service for young people.

Baroness Cass' assessment will consider plans to move to a "regional lifespan gender service" in Northern Ireland, which would amalgamate the current services into one model of care.

Gender review decisions brings mixed criticism

Muir, the Alliance Party assembly member and agriculture minister, said he did not understand the "rationale" for the review.

"There have been far too many reviews, why can't we just get on and deliver services for trans people?" he said.

"This is not complicated, this is about allowing medical professionals to do their work, far too many politicians are interfering."

Jonathan Buckley said he hoped Nesbitt would give more details about the review in the assembly

Speaking on the Good Morning Ulster programme, the DUP's Jonathan Buckley welcomed the review but said he could not understand why the £800,000 had been committed before the review took place.

"I would have thought that that was slightly putting the cart before the horse, that we could have had this review first," he said.

"I think there's much more that we need to hear about this and I would expect the minister to come before the assembly on Monday when it reconvenes to lay out in detail what the timescales are."

Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) assembly member Timothy Gaston welcomed the scrutiny of the services but also questioned why Dr Cass was brought in after the allocation of £800,000.

He said it was "hard to escape the impression that decisions are being made in advance of evidence, rather than evidence guiding the decisions".

"It appears to me that this decision has been made late in the day because of the public opposition - and unease within the minister's own assembly party - at his announcement back in July," he added.

Trans people 'waiting for seven-plus years'

Alexa Moore of The Rainbow Project said: "Frankly I don't see the need for another review.

"We're quite concerned that this is just yet another kicking of the can down the road and a response more so to political pressure than to actually the need for evidence-based, patient-led care .

"We would have our criticism of the Cass Report, but regardless of that my focus is on the countless trans people who have been waiting for seven-plus years on a waiting list and whose health is worsening as a result."