Exactly - as Peep says, the waiting times are very much variable and it does depend on which part of the UK you're from.
- If you're in Scotland, there are four clinics, most of which only accept referrals from certain parts of Scotland, all with different waiting times for a first appointment. The main one is the Sandyford in Glasgow (12 month wait), and you can self-refer to them from anywhere in Scotland without needing to see your GP first. The others are in Aberdeen (5 months), Inverness (2 months) and Edinburgh (12 months) and those three only accept patients from the surrounding area.
- If you're in Wales, you have to see your GP first, who will refer you to your local Community Mental Health Team. They'll give you some psychiatric assessments and if they decide you have Gender Dysphoria, they'll submit your case to the local Gatekeeper who allocates funding for a GIC. You'll then join the bottom of the long waiting list for Charing Cross in London (that's the only clinic they fund atm). In practical terms, the time between seeing your GP and getting hormones/surgery is about 2 years.
- If you're in England, there are 7 GICs and you're entitled to choose from any of them irrespective of where you live. You need to see your GP first and ask them to refer you to the clinic of your choice. They all have different waiting times for your first appointment, some of which are ridiculous - but they're all working on recruiting new staff to improve these waits. Current approximate waiting times for a first appointment are: Charing Cross, London (13 months); Leeds (4 years!); Newcastle (4 years!); Daventry (4 months); Nottingham (12 months); Sheffield (18 months); The Laurels, Exeter (8 months). So the quickest one is Daventry in Northamptonshire, and they tend to move you forward quite quickly once you're on their books.
- If you're in Northern Ireland, there's the Brackenburn Clinic in Belfast. Their waiting time is approx. 5 months.
In all cases, you usually need to have at least 3 therapist appointments (each a couple of months apart) before you get to see the doctor who prescribes hormones & refers you for surgery. It's also worth bearing in mind that different GICs use different surgeons, so if you want Yelland you'll find that most of the Northern clinics don't use him, but most of the Southern ones (e.g. The Laurels) do.
Also, Yelland's waiting list has gone up tremendously due to the sheer volume of guys being referred to him at the moment. There's currently a waiting list of approx. 7 months between him getting the referral letter from a GIC, and you actually having your surgery. I don't know whether he's fitting in private patients more quickly, but suffice it to say he's a very popular surgeon & a very busy man!
So if you do the maths, based on an average wait time of 8 months at a clinic that I can guarantee refers patients to Yelland (The Laurels):
- 8 months' wait for your first appointment at The Laurels.
- 4 months (probably - this varies hugely) of therapy/doctor's assessements before referral.
- 1 month for the referral to be written & sent, and received by Yelland.
- 7 months' wait (at least!) for Yelland.
... all of that adds up to 20 months. So in practical terms, you probably wouldn't be operated on until Summer/Autumn 2017, if you choose to go via the NHS.
There are other alternatives: quite a few British guys have travelled to the States to have their surgery performed by Dr Garramone. Depending on the fees and the type of hotel you choose, that can work out costing slightly less than Yelland. Plus of course there's always Thailand.
