Policy on Shared care for Transgender Patients
Poplar Grove Practice: Policy on Shared care for Transgender Patients
Transgender care is considered specialist and is not part of GP core delivery of services, and therefore does not fall within our generalist role. This recognises GPs are not considered specialists in this area of medicine. This is the reason why our local ICB commissioned speciality services within certain GP Practices across Bucks.
Shared Care Agreements:
Participating in any formal shared care agreement is voluntary, subject to a self-assessment of personal competence, and requires the agreement of all parties. NHS England’s guidance states that when clinical responsibility for prescribing is transferred to general practice, it is important that the GP is confident to prescribe the necessary medicines. The BMA guidance states if a GP Practice feels unable to take transfer of responsibility, the patient should remain under secondary care or alternative intermediate care services commissioned by their ICB. The decision as to whether to prescribe any medication, including testosterone treatment for trans-gender and non-binary people, is ultimately down to individual Clinicians and individual Practices and whether they feel clinically competent to do so.
Therefore, the GP Partners at Poplar Grove have taken the decision not to enter into shared care agreements for Transgender Care for patients newly registering at Poplar Grove Practice.
Commissioning of local services for Gender Dysphoria Patients:
We have approached the local Integrated Commissioning Board (ICB) who hold the responsibility for commissioning Gender Dysphoria support at Primary Care Level. They have advised there are 3 surgeries in Bucks that have been specially commissioned to support Gender Dysphoria Patients in Primary Care. They are Chiltern House Medical Centre in High Wycombe, Cressex Medical Centre in High Wycombe and Mandeville Surgery in Aylesbury. We recommend Cressex Surgery in High Wycombe as Mandeville Practice and Chiltern House Medical Centre are still in the process of recruiting new GPs, whereas Cressex have a GP trained in Gender Dysphoria prescribing and monitoring. Patients would need to fully register at one these surgeries for all their primary care needs, not just for their specialist services.
We realise this may introduce hurdles if required to travel to High Wycombe. The majority of consultations can be done remotely by phone or video calls and blood tests can be arranged to be done at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
If you would like us to help facilitate a registration at one of the commissioned surgeries, please email us on feedback.poplargrove@nhs.net
Agreed by GP Partners: 1st Sept 2024