UK: Dr Curtis is closing his Gender Clinic

[FTMDiaries]

Dr Richard Curtis announced yesterday that he's closing his private gender clinic (Transhealth) in London after 12 years in business.

• His last date for accepting new patients is 31 August 2017
• His last date for Gender Clinic appointments is 15 December 2017
• His last date for Hair Removal appointments is 22 December 2017

So by the end of the year, there are going to be even fewer options available for UK-based trans peeps. 

[Squirebuffy1990]

I am/was one of his patients. He is not a friendly man by any means but this is a shame.  I wonder why though.

She was also charging £120 for basically half an hour conversation on check ups and for him to look at bloodtests (which a GP can do) so I stopped going. 

I suspect others did similar.

Maybe others had better experiences with him. I just knew I needed him to get my SRS (which I got) so I played the game for as long as I had to. I spent so much money there.

[Elis]

Wow; had my last follow up appointment with him in April and there was no mention of this. Makes me more thankful now that I'm finally in the NHS GIC system and so can get my check ups done through Charing Cross.

I think it was worthwhile to get him to check my blood tests results as GPs are clueless about doing that; but yeah did seem pointless to me that I had to have a chat with him so he could see how I was coping and my appointments were only 6 months apart (being over a year on T this seems too frequent).

And I agree that he wasn't the easiest person to talk too. I also heard of a trans woman from one of my local trans groups who is planning to press charges towards him because he doesn't prescribe T blockers.

Oh well; I got my approval for T and referral sent for top surgery so worth it in the end.

[FTMDiaries]

Yes, there have been mixed reviews about Curtis: some people got on fine with him, but others seemed to find him a bit difficult. I have no idea why he's made this decision, but he's only made his decision public this week.

Still, for good or ill, at least he was a way for trans people to get started with their transitions. Now we're going to have even fewer options at a time when the queues are ridiculously long. I'm one of the lucky ones who managed to get in The Laurels back when they had a 4-month waiting list; those days are long gone!