An Oxford professor has described the waiting list for children's gender care as "deeply depressing".

Ashley Grossman, emeritus professor of endocrinology at the University of Oxford who is an endocrinologist, has been reacting to more than 5,700 under-18s wait an average of 100 weeks for a first appointment in England and Wales. 

Prof Grossman, who has been practising for more than 40 years, and who has treated adult transgender patients, described the children’s waiting list figures as “deeply depressing” but said they “probably reflect the huge disparity in general between the requirements for mental health services for children and the resources available”.

He added: “There seems to have been a large rise in demand for these services, especially since the isolation and loss of schooling during the pandemic, so I suspect this is a much wider problem than for children with gender dysphoria alone.”

It comes as two services, led by London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, opened in April following the closure of the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

Thousands of children are waiting for their first appointment for gender care Thousands of children are waiting for their first appointment for gender care (Image: PA Media)

The figures have been described by experts as “concerning” and “deeply depressing”, as they emphasised the importance of children and young people having “timely access to the professional care and support they need”.

At the point Gids closed at the end of March, the number of children on the national waiting list was 5,560.

This rose to 5,769 by the end of May, and the youngest person on the waiting list at that point was under five years old, according to the Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests by PA.

The exact age was not given as it constitutes personal third party data, NHS England said.

The figures do not refer to headcount of people employed but instead to the number of full-time equivalent positions, which allows the workforce for both clinics to be compared.

In its response to the Cass Review in April, NHS England acknowledged that the “transformation and expansion” of its gender care service “will take time to fully deliver, and the pace of progress will continue to be impacted by staffing challenges”.

Dr Roman Raczka, president of the British Psychological Society, said: “These latest figures make for concerning reading. It is imperative that children and young people have timely access to the professional care and support they need.

“We must remember that behind the numbers, headlines and often toxic public discourse, there are children and young people who need to access care.

“All too often the issue of gender care which has played out in public has been damaging to the children, young people and families desperately seeking help and this must change.”