BMA to undertake evidence-led evaluation of the Cass Review
August 08 2024

https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/bma-to-undertake-evidence-led-evaluation-of-the-cass-review

Story by Phil Banfield (August 08 2024)

As clinicians, one of the most difficult parts of medicine is caring for patients with complex needs in a system that too commonly lacks the resources to provide them with adequate support.

The care of transgender and gender diverse children and young people in the UK is an egregious example, given both the underlying multiple needs of this patient cohort and the rising attacks on their very identity.

The decision by NHS England in March this year, supported by the previous Government's emergency regulation in June to ban the use of puberty blockers for transgender and gender-diverse young people, goes further than any recommendation in the Cass Review.

At the BMA's UK council meeting in July, councillors brought a motion which raised concerns about the rapid, but selective, implementation of the Cass Review's recommendations. The motion was passed by council members and the BMA will now undertake a transparent, evidence-led evaluation of the issues raised with the Cass Review, the subsequent decisions taken by NHS England and the UK Government, and the state of transgender healthcare in the UK today.

The BMA is the British Medical Association, by the way, and is the representative body for doctors in the UK. Its members are drawn from all specialties and it negotiates deals such as pay rates with government as well as running the British Medical Journal, which is an open access publication known worldwide.