Help in a crisis during Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic
During this COVID-19 pandemic there may be changes in the way some of our services work. Contact the service directly to check how services are being delivered and follow their advice.
Some of our services now offer video consultations. You should speak to your clinician if this is something you would like them to consider. You can find out more about video consultation here.
Visiting: Contact the ward you wish to visit in advance for guidance and instructions for a safe visit.
If you need help in a mental health crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic outside office hours please contact our crisis team: Help in a crisis
For other medical advice and support contact your GP or visit NHS 111
Only visit your local Emergency Department for serious life-threatening conditions that need immediate medical attention including persistent severe chest pain, loss of consciousness, acute confused state, severe breathlessness, severe blood loss, serious burns or suspected stroke.
Patient and GP updates
October Update
IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR PATIENTS AND GPS
CHANGE OF EMAIL ADDRESS
From Thursday 15 October the clinic’s email address will cease to be used or monitored. Therefore, all communication by email needs to be directed to one of three email addresses. The accounts have been set up to route emails more easily and to the right member of the team.
Blood results and GP & Health professionals - ClinicalNCTH@nottshc.nhs.uk
Patient queries and general enquiries - NCTHGeneral@nottshc.nhs.uk
Referrals - ReferralsNCTH@nottshc.nhs.uk
Due to the account being closed a message will be sent advising that the email has not been delivered and will need to be resent the relevant address above. Sadly, we are unable to set up a redirect function on the account, so please accept our apologies for any inconvenience.
Referral Form Oct 2020
You will require Microsoft Word to complete this referral form. Please email ReferralsNCTH@nottshc.nhs.uk if you require this form in an alternative format.
Sept/October Update
Gender Appointments
We are using Video Consultations (VC) whilst COVID restrictions remain in place and it is clinically appropriate. There are times when a face to face appointment is necessary and you will be advised when these will need to place by letter along with the necessary COVID protocols.
The VC instructions are available on this website along with the Change of Details form and Email & Text Understanding form which are important to ensure we have up to date information and a home address for you. Sadly, GP’s are unable to advise us of any change of address, so it is very important you keep us updated using these forms.
If you are unable to print a form, please complete it and send it to us asking for us to print and post to you to sign. We do accept photo or scanned copies if you can print and sign but don’t have a scanner.
Waiting List
Our current waiting time is 37 months on average for a new patient referral and we are offering appointments to people referred in August 2017 via letter for an Opt-In appointment. Your current address, as mentioned above is very important. If you have moved since you have been referred, please let us know your current address using the Change of Details Form.
Whilst on our waiting list you can access the Gendered Intelligence Support Line which is a great resource, please do contact them if you need support or advice whilst you are waiting.
Video Consultation evaluation – a BIG THANK YOU
Thank you to all the patients who took part in the evaluation survey of the use of video consultation. The overall feedback was patients liked VC, there were a few IT issues which we have feedback to the Trust, and these hopefully have improved.
Your feedback was extremely useful to us as a service and over conclusion report has been shared with the Trust management team and NHS England commissioners.
Change of email addresses
We will be publishing a new email address for Referrals and another for GP’s to ensure that important documents are managed as quickly as possible, along with a new Referral Form.
This is partly due to NHS.net accounts having a limited inbox capacity which bounces emails back if it is full. The new email accounts meet the same security levels as NHS.net. When changes occur, we will update you here.
Referral Age
The service specification for the clinic states that we can see patients from the age of 17 years old. Therefore, we are unable to accept a referral before a person’s 17th birthday. We can, of course, accept it on the same day as their birthday.
Telephone and emails
Due to the high demand of emails and telephone calls, we will be looking at our peak times and response rates. This may mean that we change our telephone availability and response time to emails.
We do receive several queries that can be addressed by looking on the website, so please do check the website first.
Again, we will update you on any changes here.
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.
Email & Text Agreement Form 02.06.2020
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..
Email & Text Agreement Form 02.06.2020
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.