Tavistock Centre: NHS gender clinic faces mass legal action after children prescribed puberty blockers

An NHS Trust is facing mass legal action after vulnerable children and young people were prescribed puberty blockers by the controversial Tavistock gender identity clinic.

Lawyers claim that at least 1,000 patients will join the lawsuit claiming clinical negligence against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

Last month, it was announced that the NHS was closing the Tavistock Centre, the UK’s only gender identity clinic for children and young people, after a critical report found having only one provider was “not a safe or viable long-term option”.

Individual claims taken in a group lawsuit could run into the millions of pounds, according to Tom Goodhead, the CEO and global managing partner of Pogust Goodhead, the law firm that has announced the litigation.

The clinic, also known as the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) clinic opened in 1989 to help children under 18 who were struggling with their gender identity.

An interim report by Dr Hilary Cass, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, who is leading a review of the service, found the rise in Gids referrals at the trust had left staff overwhelmed and under “under pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach”.

This had left young people “at considerable risk” of distress and deteriorating mental health, with the service struggling with long waiting lists and failing to collect data on the use and side effects of puberty blockers.

Mr Goodhead told i the lawsuit would be over “the efficacy of the treatment”, with former patients possibly facing “physical and psychological permanent scarring that will last the rest of these victims’ lifetimes”.

More from News

“Whether this was the right approach, effectively sort of an affirmative model of care was being provided where people were presenting with certain symptoms, then they were directed towards the care, which has inevitably ended up with many people going on to puberty blockers,” he said.

“The harm is they are going to have potentially permanent and significant impacts on children’s physical development.

“So it can be anything from bone density to neuropsychological development to an inability to have children, to being able to have a normal sex life.

“These claims, because of the age of the people involved, they could run into the millions of pounds on a per-claimant basis. You are looking at life-long impacts.”

Potential neuropsychological damage or physical disability caused by the puberty blockers would “very significantly impact” former patients’ earning potential, he said.

Pogust Goodhead is now looking to speak to former patients as part of the group litigation, with the first steps of the legal action set to be lodged at the High Court in the next six months.

Vulnerable former patients who were treated as children had been caught in the middle of “politically charged debate” over gender identity and might not know where to turn for legal support, Mr Goodhead said.

Following recommendations by Dr Cass, the NHS also said it would carry out clinical research to track under-16s who were on puberty blockers into adulthood in order to counter “polarised opinion and conjecture” with evidence.”

Gids said it had received around 19,000 referrals in the past decade, with just over 1,000 referred to paediatric endocrine clinics, where physical interventions such as hormone suppressants are accessed.

A GIDS spokesperson said: “Gids has not heard from Pogust Goodhead about this matter, but it would be inappropriate to comment on any current or potential legal proceeding.

“The service is committed to patient safety. It works with every young person on a case-by-case basis, with no expectation of what might be the right pathway for them, and only the minority of young people who are seen in our service access any physical treatments while with us.”