On Tuesday, after waiting exactly 13 months to the day after my referral, I finally had my appointment with the Charring Cross GIC. I went there with the right attitude, and when I sat down to talk with the clinician I was completely honest about everything. He took down a lot of notes as I talked, and would also be asking questions regarding what I was saying. He did ask a couple of uncomfortable questions, but again, I kept completely honest and everything seemed to go really well. As far as I was concerned all the scaremongering and bad information that has been written about them, putting them in a bad light, is absolute tosh [rubbish and lies, to all you non Brits]. The guy was informative, and he listened intently to what I was saying. At the end of our conversation, and after he had signed off at the bottom of his notes, he gave me some advice, and his opinion and thoughts on what we had talked about. What he said was really helpful in thinking about certain aspects of my journey of transition and my whole life. Christ, he was actually a nice human "BEING", talking to another equal human being. I got more out of the appointment than I expected, and I walked away from there feeling just so relieved that I was finally in the system, and that I was now going to be looked after by the most qualified people that could do the job, and to top it all this wonderful real person, was actually going to be the one in charge of my case. Even the one piece of literature that he gave me, about hormones, was far more educational and advanced than anything you could possibly find out about on any, and all of the forums. I do believe, without going into all the circumstances and details of how my appointment did finally come about, someone, or maybe even 2 or 3 people may have been disciplined for their misconduct in my case. I sincerely hope that they did not lose their jobs, but I hope that they did learn their lesson, and will not make anybody else suffer, as they made me suffer.

I am glad everything worked out for you.

Also, I learned a new word tonight TOSH.

Quote from: firestarter on April 24, 2015, 08:13:58 AM
On Tuesday, after waiting exactly 13 months to the day after my referral, I finally had my appointment with the Charring Cross GIC. I went there with the right attitude, and when I sat down to talk with the clinician I was completely honest about everything. He took down a lot of notes as I talked, and would also be asking questions regarding what I was saying. He did ask a couple of uncomfortable questions, but again, I kept completely honest and everything seemed to go really well. As far as I was concerned all the scaremongering and bad information that has been written about them, putting them in a bad light, is absolute tosh [rubbish and lies, to all you non Brits]. The guy was informative, and he listened intently to what I was saying. At the end of our conversation, and after he had signed off at the bottom of his notes, he gave me some advice, and his opinion and thoughts on what we had talked about. What he said was really helpful in thinking about certain aspects of my journey of transition and my whole life. Christ, he was actually a nice human "BEING", talking to another equal human being. I got more out of the appointment than I expected, and I walked away from there feeling just so relieved that I was finally in the system, and that I was now going to be looked after by the most qualified people that could do the job, and to top it all this wonderful real person, was actually going to be the one in charge of my case. Even the one piece of literature that he gave me, about hormones, was far more educational and advanced than anything you could possibly find out about on any, and all of the forums. I do believe, without going into all the circumstances and details of how my appointment did finally come about, someone, or maybe even 2 or 3 people may have been disciplined for their misconduct in my case. I sincerely hope that they did not lose their jobs, but I hope that they did learn their lesson, and will not make anybody else suffer, as they made me suffer.

Hi Firestarter,

I think your post is so informative and kind for other people going to Charing Cross. I myself am not going there, but to Nottingham GIC, while waiting times are something that we really have to be patient about in regards to the GIC's and he NHS. There's a lot that can be done for the transition while waiting. But thats beside the point. I think you're right that many of the people at the GIC's are actually very caring medical professionals. At this point I just believe that most of the people that take to commenting and posting online about them are people who are angry for various reasons. The main one is I think they are asking for treatment without compromising with going full time or a name change. They get frustrated and lash out online. The majority of cases in which people are treated kindly and with respect and they jump through the necessary hoops to show the necessary commitment just don't tend to comment on the subject online that much. So I'm glad you're doing that. Congrats on your appointment and hopefully your future appointments are as positive as this one!

I'm really glad you've had a good experience with CHX but waiting 13 months is ridiculous when NHS guidelines state you should be seen within 3 months.
I agree that the DR's are nice once you get to see them but when I was under them the admin side of things was a shambles, I sincerely hope they've rectified these problems.

The difference in admin and waiting times between CHX and The Laurels is like night and day. Last year I spent 5 hrs travelling to London to be told the person I was seeing had quit the previous week but they hadn't contacted me to cancel the appointment, I was told they would send me a replacement appointment, 6 months later I phoned them to ask when I'd get a new appointment and got the stroppy response "we'll contact you when we can"
Whilst travelling to my first appointment with the Laurels I had a call to say my phsyciatrist had phoned in sick, she phoned me the next day to apologise and said she could see me the very next day, I couldn't arrange transport so they saw me the very next week.
This is why I advise people to request clinics other than CHX. Too many people are being refered to London when they have clinics closer and the patients are suffering due to unreasonable waiting times, the admin staff are also suffering due to the strain this puts on them.

I wish you all the best with CHX, please keep posting any positive news about CHX as I know they are trying hard to improve their service.