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How long is the wait for a first appointment at GIDS?

We are aware that the time young people have to wait for a first appointment here at GIDS is long. We are working hard to reduce waiting times, including with our commissioners NHS England.

These longer waiting times come after a large increase in the number of referrals to our service over the past few years.

It is not possible to give individual expected wait times in an accurate way. We know that it is frustrating not to have a firm figure for how long you might have to wait, but waiting times can change. We might mislead people if we try to be too precise about future waiting times.

We are currently seeing young people for their first appointment in GIDS who were referred in 2019.

Here are some things that can affect waiting times:

  • The length of time we see each young person during their time in GIDS will vary in length, depending on individual circumstances, and can also involve work with other teams local to the young person.
  • The number of people not attending appointments, or cancelling at short notice has a big impact on the waiting list and the number of appointments we can offer.
  • When we refer young people from GIDS to an adult gender service, it is not easy to say when they will be offered an appointment, and so when their care will be fully transferred.

Because these factors can be hard to predict, the waiting times we give may unfortunately increase over time as well as go down.

For more information, see our advice for parents on how to help your child whilst waiting for input.

 

Latest waiting list figures

Please note: due to a national outage of the patient records system that we use, we are currently unable to update these figures. We will update the figures as soon as their system is back online. The national providers have not yet given us a date for this.

At the end of May 2022:

Number of people on our waiting list: 5,035

Number of referrals received in the month: 200

Number of first appointments offered in the month: 29

Young people we saw for the first time this month had waited on average: 1,066 days

Please note: These are the numbers of referrals from CAMHS and paediatric services. These numbers do not include referrals from General Practitioners and other non-CAMHS/paediatric referrers, which are handled by NHS Arden & GEM Commissioning Support Unit’s referral management service. You can read more about our referrals process on this page.

See the number of referrals we have received each year for the past ten years.

Hear from our young people about how to manage while on our waiting list

What if I turn 18 while I am on your waiting list?

We are commissioned to see young people who are under the age of 18, and we have a long waiting list. This means that some young people on our waiting list will not be seen by our service before they turn 18. We are very sorry that we are not able to see these young people in GIDS, and are working to reduce our waiting times.

We know that this transfer can be difficult, and are working with our commissioners to arrange extra support for young people moving to adult services.

We have an agreement with the eight adult gender identity clinics in England and Wales: we can transfer our referrals to them, and they will honour the time spent on our waiting list.

If you reach the age of 17 and 9 months while on our waiting list (or if you are referred to our service from that age), we will send you a letter, asking if you would like to be transferred to the waiting list of an adult gender identity clinic, and which one you would prefer. If you want to be transferred, we will contact your preferred GIC and you will be added to their waiting list. They will take into account the amount of time that you have waited to be seen by GIDS.

Read some information about finding a community

Read some information about coping with difficult feelings

Read some information about what to do if you are low or depressed

Parents: read more about supporting your child whilst waiting for input

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