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Waiting times

Posted By snowday

"Waiting times"

About: Highly Specialist Services / Gender Identity Service (GIS)

(as a service user),

I feel awful. How on earth has the wait time jumped another 14months for just a first appointment that's nearly 4years my soul is absolute destroyed. I do not believe covid is an acceptable excuses at all as I know full well people have had more than 6 appointments in this time also the waiting time had already increased due to covid.

I was told that first appointments are happening but I find this hard to believe looking at the figures. How many first appointments have actually happened since 2018 I believe very few but I know you won't actually answer. I'll be lucky if I am seen before I turn 40 the effect on my mental health is immense due this excruciating wait.  How can you treat people like this. I know this will just get some generic comment from someone in management saying they are sorry and they are doing all they can but they aren't clearly. what we want is some actually answers and some care.

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Responses

Response from Holly Robson, Operational Support Officer, Healthwatch Sheffield 3 years ago
Holly Robson
Operational Support Officer,
Healthwatch Sheffield

Submitted on 10/03/2021 at 15:45
Published on Care Opinion on 11/03/2021 at 14:14

Hi snowday,

I noticed this hasn't been responded to by anyone at the service yet so wanted to reach out and see how you are. I'm so sorry to hear you've been waiting so long for your first appointment, I can't imagine how you must be feeling.

As you know, unfortunately waiting times at the Gender Identity Service have been an issue for a good while now - we worked with trans and non-binary people to report this back in 2019 but we know it's been a problem for longer. At the time we made recommendations to NHS services to improve care, but reading your experience has prompted us to follow this up and see what actions have been taken, if any.

If you want to get in touch to let us know any more or to talk about how this has been from your perspective it would be great to hear from you. I've put the link to our earlier report below but you can also find our contact details there on the website:

https://www.healthwatchsheffield.co.uk/report/2019-03-25/experiences-health-care-sheffield%E2%80%99s-trans-community

With best wishes,

Holly

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