audio by title 'interview with claire eastwood and cllr nader fekri'

Many people with gender identity issues are finding that their Primary Care Trusts are unsympathetic to funding any kind of referral to specialist Gender Identity Clinics - even just to explore the individual’s needs and support them. In the Calderdale area of West Yorkshire Claire Eastwood has taken a bold approach to dealing with such policies. She’s sought the backing of local councillors to help her fight an essentially political policy with political expertise.

Councillor Fekri says that the thing that has surprised him most about getting involved in Claire’s cause is the sheer numbers of ordinary decent people who sympathise and think trans people should have fair treatment too. In his view it is only the Primary Care Trust that is backward and failing to understand and reflect public opinion. He thinks that more trans people in other parts of the country should try take the same approach as Claire and seek out the help of local politicians.

Councillors on local health scrutiny committees cannot force a PCT to change its policies; yet they can have a very significant role in showing NHS administrators where the strength of public opinion lies.

These days it is often quite firmly in favour of trans people being treated fairly and equally like everyone else. Meanwhile Claire says she will fight on.

You can “subscribe” to PFC’s audio content if you have a compatible program such as iTunes. Simply click on the link(s) below and follow the instructions. Subscribing to our “feed” means that your Podcast software will automatically download new content when we publish it here.