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Sex-change group to lobby MPs
A GROUP of transgender people are to lobby MPs tomorrow over the Leeds service which runs the sex change process.
About 20 current and former patients of Leeds Gender Identity Service want to raise concerns about the way it is run.
Claire Eastwood, of Trans Yorkshire, said: "The rules are reminiscent of bail conditions. It's totally inflexible."
But the health body running the service, which is based at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds, says it is flexible and based around the client. Campaigners' claims include that patients have to prove they are in work or training, their employer may be asked to confirm they do live in their chosen gender and that people who have legally registered their gender change still have to go through a similar process when going to the service.
The visit to the House of Parliament comes after six years of campaigning.
Initially it was around the long waiting times for appointments, which led Ms Eastwood to travel to Thailand for gender reassignment surgery, though these have now been reduced. In March, Calderdale Council's health and social care scrutiny panel voted to ask the Leeds Gender Identity Service to suspend a document governing how it operates. The lobbying group going to London are being supported by campaign group Press for Change.
Vice president Ben Thom said: "In addition to the usual NHS waiting times, patients wishing gender confirmation treatment have to attend years of assessment and testing before any treatment commences – in that time every aspect of a persons' private life will be microscopically examined and challenged."
Support
Deputy Mayor of Calderdale, Coun Nader Fekri, is also supporting the group.
A spokesman for Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the service, said: "Leeds Gender Identity Service provides a quality service which is both flexible and client-centred with client safety at the forefront of any clinical interventions."
He said the service's operational system was reviewed regularly and adhered to their Single Equality Scheme which explains how the trust promotes equality.
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Weather for Leeds
Friday 25 May 2012
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