Patient updates

15 May 2020

Clinic Team

Due to COVID-19 the team is working under social distancing and working remotely.  This does provide the occasional challenge and we would ask people to bear with us during this exceptional time.  We will continue to follow national guidance regarding social distancing and not holding face to face appointments at this time.

Gender Appointments

Where possible appointments are now Video or Telephone Consultations and details about how the Video Consultations work will be emailed to you when your appointment date and time has been confirmed.

We are trying to contact all patients by phone first, then email as we have identified a slight problem with the post system.  If you are not sure if we have your current telephone or email details, please send us a Change of Details form along with an Email & Text Understanding form which can also be found on the website.

Post

Our post goes via a franking office and some of the letters have not been franked as they have been returned by the Post Office to us, however this appears to take 6 to 8 weeks.  We are looking into this and to find a solution.

Waiting List  

Our current waiting time is 34 months on average for a new patient referral.

Patient by Experience to help with training

The clinic is looking for volunteers who would be happy to help train new starters within the service, so if you would be interested in this, please let us know by email.

Patient Video and Telephone Appointment Evaluation

During May we will be asking patients to give feedback on their experience of the appointments being held by Video or Telephone via SurveyMonkey.  We would be grateful for your partition and feedback if you are asked during the two-week period of the evaluation.

Important forms

It is very important that we have the right contact details for our patients so please use the forms below to let us know if you have changed any details or to give us permission to text you appointments once we start that service.

Change of details form

Email & Text Understanding Form

 

1 April 2020

COVID-19

To reduce the risk of infection all, clinically appropriate, face to face appointments are being moved to telephone. Video consultations are being rolled out at pace and should be replacing telephone consultations soon. Patients will be contacted in advance to confirm if their appointment will be by telephone or video conference. Appointments will not be cancelled unless necessary.

Therefore, it is important that we have your correct telephone number for you. If you have not received a call a week before the date of your appointment, please email us with TELEPHONE APPOINTMENT in the subject heading and send the Change of Details and Agreement forms which are available below..

Change of details form

Email & Text Understanding Form 

If you do not have access to a scanner at home but can print and sign the form, we will accept a photo of the signed form.

All groups have also been cancelled, this includes the St Peter’s Andrology Group, until further notice.

Please note that due to staff redeployment or sickness we may not be able to respond as quickly to emails and phone messages. Please be patient and we will reply as quickly as possible to you. Multiple messages or emails will only delay how quickly we can respond.

Remember to follow the guidance regarding your general physical health and COVID 19 and we will try to keep you as updated as possible via the website.

 

Info about hormones

A big worry for a lot of us is the continued availability of hormones. The NHS has been swift to offer advice for those taking hormones. The advice covers everything from getting hold of injections, blood tests and what to do if you are due an appointment but feel unwell. The advice is listed on a webpage which can be found here. This information will be updated if the situation changes for any treatment.

 

Letters and appointments

The admin team has been expanded with two new starters in February to help with a backlog of letters which has been causing a delay. We appreciate your patience with any delays you are experiencing regarding letters and new appointment dates. Please keep checking this website for updates.

 

Telephone line

As people will know there has been a few issues regarding the telephone line which is usually very busy throughout the day taking calls from patients. The Centre is currently looking at different options regarding the management of calls and until that time if your call is not urgent, you may wish to email us via not-tr.gender-services@nhs.net.

It would be helpful if the subject line of your email uses the following words to enable us to direct the query more efficiently:

• Appointment query
• Awaiting letter
• Name change
• Waiting list
• Address/GP change

 

New appointments to the Team

In February 2020 Chris Cook joined the team. He is a qualified Speech and Language Therapist who specialises in transgender voice and communication therapy. He also has experience in the areas of paediatric speech, language, communication and voice disorders.

Chris is a member of the of the National Transgender Voice and Communication Therapy Clinical Excellence Network (CEN) which is a transgender voice and communication group for speech and language therapists in the UK.

Tina Nock also joined the team in February as the Service Manager and has a wealth of experience regarding NHS commissioning and had been one of the NHS England commissioning leads for Transgender Services. Tina has worked closely with the Centre for over 10 years.

Dr Derek Glidden has become the new clinical lead of the service.