This has been caused in part by the large increase in the number of people who have come forward over the last few years and presented as being transgender, this in turn has put considerable pressure on the budget that NHS England has for all the speciality commissioned services, gender reassignment surgery being one of those services.
Many people are blaming the NHS, but in fairness to them, it really isn't their fault - this government keeps cutting the amount of funding to the NHS and specialised services are one area where the axe falls hardest - especially the funding for transgender services as the general public tends not to rate money spent in this area very high on their list of priorities, which isn't helped by negative press from such "newspapers" such as the Daily Mail.
However, these funding shortfalls are having a devastating affect on the lives of transgender people - they go by the book and complete what is mandated of them by the GIC's by completing their RLE's, fully expecting their referral at the end of that period - and then they are told "Sorry, the money has run out now, you will have to wait until next year for your referral".
Has this affected you? Will it affect you in the next few months?
This is what this survey is about. If your life, your mental health, your physical health has been affected on hearing about these funding shortfalls, please tell us about it - hopefully if enough people are being affected, then we can pressure NHS England to look again and try to get extra funding.
Please tell us about how the news of these shortfalls in funding and the delays due to shortage of qualified surgeons has affected you. Your voice can make a difference.
Take the survey here
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Thank you for your patience -- Carol