{"id":187547,"date":"2025-12-12T07:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T07:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/187547\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T07:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T07:42:07","slug":"transgender-care-waiting-list-to-close-due-to-resource-pressures-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/187547\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgender care waiting list to close due to resource pressures \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lead psychiatrist with the National Gender Service<\/a> (NGS), which provides healthcare for transgender adults, has said its \u201cvery regrettable\u201d decision to close waiting lists stems from lack of space and resources.<\/p>\n

The NGS plans to close to new clients on March 1st, 2026.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Prime Time on Thursday, Dr Paul Moran said about 2,500 people are on the waiting list.<\/p>\n

Those who are on the list will be assessed, but that process could take years. As of last month, the average waiting time for assessment was 4\u00bd years. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately we\u2019re forced to do this because after six years of trying to get resources and to meet demands, we have come to a dead end,\u201d Dr Moran said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t keep adding more and more people to a waiting list that\u2019s getting longer and with the current resources we have no capacity to meet this need.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the State\u2019s only multidisciplinary clinical service for transgender healthcare, the NGS operates from a two-room prefab in the grounds of Dublin\u2019s St Columcille\u2019s Hospital in Loughlinstown.<\/p>\n

Its team includes an endocrinologist, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, nurses, a social worker and an occupational therapist.<\/p>\n

Describing the situation facing people on the service\u2019s lengthy waiting list as \u201cunconscionable\u201d, Dr Moran said the NGS is looking for \u201ca dedicated centre for the service, preferably a much more accommodating environment than we have in a small general hospital\u201d.<\/p>\n

This, he said, has not yet transpired due to the fact that project development with the Health Service Executive<\/a> (HSE) has broken down \u201ctime and time again\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Dr Moran told Prime Time\u2019s Miriam O\u2019Callaghan that the NGS remains \u201coptimistic that a solution will be found\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response to questions about the NGS\u2019s current model of care, labelled as \u201ca failure\u201d on Thursday by Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s health spokesman David Cullinane, Dr Moran said \u201cit hasn\u2019t collapsed, we are delivering a good service for the people we have been able to see\u201d.<\/p>\n

The system of transgender healthcare in Ireland came under fire earlier this month when Labour\u2019s health spokeswoman Marie Sherlock told the D\u00e1il that it is \u201cconsistently ranked as the worst in Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about the impact of the closure of waiting lists on those seeking care, Dr Moran said it would \u201cbe upsetting for them\u201d and \u201ccause worry and stress\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, chair of the NGS\u2019s clinical governance committee, Brian Cotter, issued a letter to health officials explaining the decision.<\/p>\n

The letter was sent to Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lead psychiatrist with the National Gender Service (NGS), which provides healthcare for transgender adults, has said its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,1418,396,61,60,1421,95453],"class_list":["post-187547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jennifer-carroll-macneill","tag-national-gender-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}