Transgress the NGS, an organisation campaigning for a better trans healthcare system in Ireland, has published an open letter to the Irish Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, asking that he “order the National Gender Service to stop interfering with trans patients ability to access basic healthcare through their GP”. Earlier this month, Transgress the NGS staged a theatre protest outside the HSE offices, calling on the NGS, which is currently the sole public provider of trans healthcare in Ireland, to drop its policy of advising GPs not to provide blood tests and hormone replacement therapy prescriptions to their trans patients. The newly published open letter begins with: “ We are writing to highlight major challenges for trans people’s right to access basic healthcare through their GP due to interference from the National Gender Service (NGS) and demand action on this issue.
“This is the case for patients who are accessing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) by self medicating, referring to accessing HRT without oversight from a qualified medical professional or through private healthcare providers. People’s choice to access HRT privately or by self medicating reflects the non-existence of an adequate public trans healthcare system, with current NGS waiting lists estimated at up to 10 years and rising”. Transgress the NGS goes on to call out the NGS’s current policy of “advising GPs not to provide blood tests or HRT prescriptions to patients accessing heal.