I was wondering if anyone is having issues with their NHS GIC's as I believe mine are lying to me because they don't want to treat me due to past mental health issues.
My clinic wont answer my questions
They wont prescribe me hormones despite being full time for a year
They have told me the nhs dont breast augmentation (i did not even ask)
I'm struggling to get treated so I'm now have gone private now to run side along them, but I can't understand why my clinic is doing all this .
The only time they /should/ be able to reject you for hormone treatment is if you have serious physical or mental illnesses that were not under control.
Things take time, and some people are waiting up to 3 years for even their first appointment.
Breast augmentation is occasionally funded by NHS, but being a more 'cosmetic' surgery it isn't easy, plus they would not consider it until at least 1 year on estrogen.
If they are refusing to answer reasonable questions, request a consultation with the head of the service and make a complaint or inquiry with them.
Good luck, NHS can be tricky to get around, I hope you can get it sorted
Quote from: ChristineShearing on May 22, 2016, 06:57:02 AM
I was wondering if anyone is having issues with their NHS GIC's as I believe mine are lying to me because they don't want to treat me due to past mental health issues.
My clinic wont answer my questions
They wont prescribe me hormones despite being full time for a year
They have told me the nhs dont breast augmentation (i did not even ask)
I'm struggling to get treated so I'm now have gone private now to run side along them, but I can't understand why my clinic is doing all this .
In the 2010 health bill responsibility for all NHS treatment funding was quietly removed from NHS regions and instead given to small groups of Local GP's - so called clinical comissioning groups. They were given a LOT of freedom to decide what they would fund and WHO they would fund from their little units.
Alongside this all responsibility for actually ensuring equality of provision was removed from the secretary of state and department of health and we effectively ceased to have a NATIONAL health service, but instead gained a lot of little local ones... For mainstream issues these work pretty well, because they allow clinicians to tweak the funding allocation to match the particular epidemiology in theor area - for example in an area of high levels of industrial polution funding more provision for lung disease etc... HOWEVER where they do not work well are for rarer conditions or thinsg which the commisioning groups CCGs have no understanding of - and they can then find their priority demoted severely.
Add to this the fact the the NHS currently has a deficeit running into billions and is extremely unlikely to balance its books during the next few years and you can understand why people are running around cutting anything they think they can get away with on any pretext or excuse that they think would sound plausible if exposed in the press.
I fear therefore that its not that the clinicians dealing with your care have doubts, but that those with the purse strings will likely have instructed them to GO SLOW...
I know this because of course I am now firmly on the other side of that paradigm myself and, as a trainee doctor, I see it every day, and not just with trans patients. Any treatment which is regarded as "elective" - which is to say any treatment which will not immediately and directly kill you if you do not have it now, is being questioned and delayed repeatedly. Its a ->-bleeped-<- situation, and my advice to anyone who wants SRS is to do what you have done, because while in theory the NHS will provide the treatment, in practice I suspect you could wait five ten or even fifteen years before it happens - and the NHS itself is highly unlikely to last that long.
I understand there is restrictions but in my case they are not even listening to me or answering my questions about anything, for instance I asked about travel fees being refunded(future appointment concern) as I'm on low income and the lady ignored me, I repeated it about 3 times before she acknowledged my question only to follow by saying yes you can but we cant give you a form for that.
I have no serious mental health illness , it was just depression in the past which my support worker helps we with and over the last 2 years with their help and I'm no longer depressed or on tablets.
She was treating me like a child talking down at me , at one point I thought she got me confused with someone else as she asked "what does my parents think about driving me there". I complained and made it clear to her that I'm a 27 year old married women who lives with my partner in a house we rent. She even then denied my wife thinking she was a "girl friend" until I showed her my marriage certificate and ring. It was my neighbor that drove us to save us money and time. Later on she asked "what does my Parents think about this" and I had to complain yet again stating I don't even keep in contact with them much over the recent attacks and showed her my police report on it.
At the end of the appointment she said come back in 8 weeks I complained about the time she agreed to change it to it 4 weeks as I've waited so long already handed me an appointment card. I looked at the card and guess what it read 8 weeks and she walked of with me chasing her and she just ignored me and walked into a private room.
My solicitor has told me that I can sue but I don't want that to stop my treatment, I really don't know what to do.
So about 2 weeks ago me and my partner has contacted a private GP instead who has agreed to medicate me, and I'm waiting for my blood results. Sadly this means we are now saving for surgery but with some luck we might be about to afford the surgery by my birthday this year. I've told the service everything and they did said the GIC should be treating me and listening.
sorry, I'm from the US and it's mostly private insurance.
Quote from: stephaniec on May 22, 2016, 10:08:27 AM
sorry, I'm from the US and it's mostly private insurance.
This the thing I should have went the private route from the start in fact the cost is less then what I spent on self prescribing so far, it would have speed things up greatly. The way we have worked it out is each year i can have 1 surgery which we are saving. We worked it out by the time we are saved up we would have done alot more then the NHS would be at.
It is terrible how the NHS is treating me like a child, the nhs keeps constantly lying which even my support workers have complained about before.
I can't understand why she talked about me having SRS but will not prescribe hormones until a 3rd person speaks to me something is wrong here.
If I get her again next appointment then I'm going to record the conversion so people can she how shes talking down at me.
Sadly, there are a few practitioners at some NHS clinics who have bad reputations, particularly with disabled patients. And some of the clinics are better than others.
However, there are many of us who have successfully transitioned on the NHS, including disabled people with complex needs who are aided by support workers. It's more difficult, but it is definitely doable. You've said before that you're under the care of mental health services and you have support workers... and both of those things can make some clinicians extra-cautious. Have you asked to see someone different at the GIC? It could be something as simple as a personality clash that's getting in your way. You have the right to ask to not see that particular woman & to be assigned to someone else.
Alternatively, you have the right to attend any GIC in England, not just your nearest one. If you're not getting the service you need at your current GIC, you can ask your GP to re-refer you to one of the others. There are several, including London, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Northampton (Daventry), Nottingham and Exeter.
Some, such as The Laurels, are much more proactive and I know that the Clinical Director of The Laurels is pushing to have both breast augmentation and FFS routinely funded on the NHS for trans women who want these procedures. So why not try somewhere else? You could get on the waiting list now (Daventry and Exeter have the shortest lists at the moment) so by the time you get to that point, you should be able to at least get surgery on the NHS and save yourself a small fortune.
Also, bear in mind that the reputable private doctors who prescribe hormones will expect you to come back for follow-up appointments - each of which will cost you extra.
Quote from: FTMDiaries on May 23, 2016, 07:12:50 AM
Sadly, there are a few practitioners at some NHS clinics who have bad reputations, particularly with disabled patients. And some of the clinics are better than others.
However, there are many of us who have successfully transitioned on the NHS, including disabled people with complex needs who are aided by support workers. It's more difficult, but it is definitely doable. You've said before that you're under the care of mental health services and you have support workers... and both of those things can make some clinicians extra-cautious. Have you asked to see someone different at the GIC? It could be something as simple as a personality clash that's getting in your way. You have the right to ask to not see that particular woman & to be assigned to someone else.
Alternatively, you have the right to attend any GIC in England, not just your nearest one. If you're not getting the service you need at your current GIC, you can ask your GP to re-refer you to one of the others. There are several, including London, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Northampton (Daventry), Nottingham and Exeter.
Some, such as The Laurels, are much more proactive and I know that the Clinical Director of The Laurels is pushing to have both breast augmentation and FFS routinely funded on the NHS for trans women who want these procedures. So why not try somewhere else? You could get on the waiting list now (Daventry and Exeter have the shortest lists at the moment) so by the time you get to that point, you should be able to at least get surgery on the NHS and save yourself a small fortune.
Also, bear in mind that the reputable private doctors who prescribe hormones will expect you to come back for follow-up appointments - each of which will cost you extra.
I was discharged from mental health services last early year, the only support workers I have are from a charity they don't come under mental health. The support worker from the charity helps with finances nothing to do with mental health. I'm no longer mentally ill and all I had was serve depression which was caused from not living how I wanted too. Even my doctor agrees hormones is the best treatment for me but they keep running rings around her.
I'm at the Nottingham clinic, I will ask not to see her again but it has been far over a year waiting to get to that GIC there is no way I'm going to put myself through that wait again. I was crying 5 times a day in depression waiting only to see my self improve after a year being full time and having my date set in place.
A course my private doctor expects counseling and follow up appointments, and I have specifically asked for it as I already see a private councilor who helps me greatly(he taught me many skills in managing my mental health).
I never asked her for breast surgery she just assume that I want it.
Private cost more yes but the bonus is my mental health is in a better state and that is worth every penny spent, the NHS are treating me like a child you should hear her tone of voice to me. I'm 27 she talked to me like as if I was 5 with that "cute voice people do", she kept even assuming that I live with my parents and that my wife was just a girlfriend from "school". Well Josie complained and the women kicked her out, I had to show her my bloody birth and marriage certificate to prove my age and then she gave me a look that could kill.
Yeah, I'm with the NHS too so I know only too well how we can be made to feel like performing monkeys. It's incredibly frustrating when all we want to do is get on with living our lives like everyone else.
I understand completely why you wouldn't want to join the back of a new queue at a different GIC. In which case, your best option is to insist on seeing someone else at Nottingham. I have strong suspicions about who you've seen there, and if I'm right, she's a bit like Marmite. Some patients get on with her just fine, but I've seen several allegations of patients' words being twisted as well as quite a bit of gatekeeping behaviour - particularly with patients who have complicated histories. If that sounds familiar, definitely insist on seeing someone else at Nottingham.
In the meantime, good luck with the private treatment. It's sad that we have to pay extra to do this when we've already invested in the NHS, but when we find ourselves backed into a corner we don't have much choice.
You had been self prescribing?
Was this herebal or proper HRT?
I'm all herbal at the moment :/ hope that it has effects
You are stunning in your pp! :)
I hope you get sorted out soon, I think I get my hormones on the 11th of July! :)
Finally I'm under a prescription sense yesterday thanks to both my private GP and my local doctor who was very understanding of my situation.
I had problems getting my prescription as the pharmacy made a big fuss of it and pointed me out in a room of full people then humiliated me for it, in the end they prescribed it soon as I mentioned the word discrimination and police.
After I went to the store "Boots" down the road and explained the situation to me to see their opinion and they set up a system with me so I can get my future prescriptions from them to save me humiliation which the other pharmacy gave me.
I'm seeking a councilor next week and thanks to the help of my neighbor his recommend one to me, she was very understanding over the phone polite and friendly. So I'm having a look around but most likely chose the one recommended.
Quote from: ChristineRachel on May 24, 2016, 12:59:27 PM
You had been self prescribing?
Was this herebal or proper HRT?
I'm all herbal at the moment :/ hope that it has effects
You are stunning in your pp! :)
I hope you get sorted out soon, I think I get my hormones on the 11th of July! :)
Yes I was self prescribing from online pharmacy before but no longer needed as I'm now prescribed by a GP, I do not recommend self prescribing as it is very stressful,dangerous and cost a lot more then it does to go via private route.
Thank you x.
So glad to hear it's worked out for you :). I don't get why the person is still allowed to work at the GIC; I hope there's someway for you to file a complaint against her.