The NHS’s most senior adviser on transgender health refused to share data about his clinic’s patients with the Cass Review.
Dr Hilary Cass said efforts to track the journeys of around 9,000 children who went on to be seen by adult services were “thwarted” by the refusal of clinics to provide evidence.
Researchers were trying to establish the long-term consequences of medical interventions by seeking data from adult clinics, which take patients from the age of 16.
Six of the seven clinics which run adult gender services refused to comply with the request.
They include the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health, one of the leading centres in the country.
Dr Derek Glidden, its clinical director, refused to comply despite being NHS England’s gender dysphoria national speciality adviser.
He chairs the NHS England Clinical Reference Group on gender dysphoria, while another of its five members, Dr Laura Charlton, the clinical lead at Leeds Gender Identity Clinic, also refused to participate in the research.
The Nottingham clinic has been key to the rollout of a new wave of experimental trans services being set up across the country. It has links to the Indigo Gender Service in Greater Manchester, which describes itself as “trans and non-binary led”, and to the recently launched scheme in Sussex which has put GPs in charge.
Campaigners have raised concerns about the pilot schemes, with one likening them to “the Wild West”, saying responsibility for life-changing decisions was being handed to those with inadequate specialist knowledge.
As chair of the NHS Clinical Reference Group on gender dysphoria, Dr Glidden advises its national programme board, which commissioned the rollout.
Dr Charlton, a clinical psychologist, worked at the controversial and now shut down Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) from 2014 to 2020 and has previously defended the clinic.
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