GIC Referrals, Waiting Times =by Year to 2025

Reference: 25-26063

Date response sent: 04/06/2025

Details of enquiry

For each year from 2014 onwards, including so far in 2025, please provide:

1. The number of people who received a referral for a first appointment
2. The number of people who were offered a first appointment
3. The average (mean) wait in weeks for a first appointment
4. The number of people who received a first appointment within 18 weeks
5. Of those who received a first appointment that year, the longest someone had waited to receive it
6. At the end of each year, the date people currently receiving a first appointment were originally referred

Additionally, for each year, please provide:

7. The number of people who received hormones that year as part of their gender identity healthcare
8. Of those who received such hormones, the average length of time they had waited to receive it since their referral
9. The number of people who completed treatment that year

If data from 2014 is not available, please provide it from the most recent year available.

Response sent

For each year from 2014 onwards, including so far in 2025, please provide:

1. The number of people who received a referral for a first appointment

Column 1 in the table below shows the number of GIC patients for whom a referral for a first appointment was received

2. The number of GIC patients offered a first appointment

Column 2 in the table below shows GIC patients who were offered a first appointment, this includes DNA and cancellations.

3. The average (mean) wait in weeks for a first appointment

Column 3 in the table below shows GIC patients average wait in weeks from the date referral was received to the date of first attended appointment, for first appointments which took place during the year.

4. The number of people who received a first appointment within 18 weeks

Column 4 in the table below shows the number of GIC patients who received a first appointment within 18 weeks of referral received date.

5. Of those who received a first appointment that year, the longest someone had waited to receive it

Column 5 in the table below shows GIC patients who waited the longest from date referral received to date of first attended appointment, per year.

6. At the end of each year, the date people currently receiving a first appointment were originally referred

The table below shows the year of referral for those patients who were seen in each of the last 9 years, from April 2017 – when the GIC transferred to us from West London NHS Mental Health Trust – to April 2025, the most recent validated data held at this time.

We note that you requested the date of referral, however we are required to withhold this data because so much of it is in numbers less than 6, which we are required to mask as ≤5, that the resulting table would loose meaning and mainly consisting of ≤5 digits.  For example, this is a snapshot of the detailed results for one of the months, you requested, which we would need to heavily mask prior to disclosure:

The Trust follows the NHS England standard, established to not provide exact data where the numbers are smaller than 6 as this may lead to identification of individuals.

The Trust has engaged exemption from releasing exact low numbers in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) Section 40(2) (Information which constitutes the personal data of any person other than the applicant, where disclosure would not be permitted under GDPR, thereby breaching GDPR Principle (a): Lawfulness, fairness and transparency.

As this is an absolute exemption, we do not have to apply the Public Interest Test when engaging this exemption

The Trust recognises a high level of interest from public in how the public purse has been spent on services, and must balance this against disclosure of any small numbers and the years in which these instances occurred, which – whilst not directly identifying individuals, would nevertheless give rise to a disclosure of personal data, as follows:

• Although the year of alone is not personal data, we have also to consider whether other information that is already available, or may become available, to any member of the public, could be combined with the data requested so as to enable identification of the individual(s) concerned.
• As we are a small Trust of which the GIC is part, there is a high chance of recognition/identification of particular individuals/patients by fellow patients or others from the low numbers.
• This masking of low numbers is not a just a question of considering the means reasonably likely to be used by general public, but also the means likely to be used by a determined person with a particular reason to want to identify individuals from data in the public domain now or in the future, and/or gained from other sources.

Additionally, for each year, please provide:

7. The number of people who received hormones that year as part of their gender identity healthcare

The Trust does not hold this data.

The Endocrinology Team at the Trust’s GIC do not issue prescriptions for hormone therapy. Where assessed as appropriate, the endocrinologist would write to the patient’s GP recommending that they prescribe hormone therapy for the patient, but the Trust does not routinely receive information that patients have received these prescriptions nor whether they continue with these medications.

8. Of those who received such hormones, the average length of time they had waited to receive it since their referral

The Trust does not hold this data – please see our response to Q7 above.

9. The number of people who completed treatment that year

The Trust can confirm the number of patients discharged from the service by year, irrespective of whether treatment was completed, and this is shown in the table below.

The Trust does not hold data on the number of GIC patients who were considered to have completed their treatment and therefore discharged by year.  This is because GIC patients cannot be discharged by reason of completed treatment until they have completed their last episode of planned surgery, and we are not always informed when surgery has taken place and even then, in some cases,  further post-surgery appointments would be required.