Judge backs sex changes on NHS
By Sandra Laville
THREE transsexuals won a landmark ruling in the High Court yesterday which overturned a health authority’s decision not to fund their sex change surgery.
A judge ruled that North West Lancashire Health Authority made an “unlawful and irrational” decision when it refused to fund the operations costing between £7,000 and £9,000 each. Mr Justice Hidden said the decision had been taken without consideration of what was “the proper treatment of a recognised illness”.
“Miss A”, 21, and “Miss D” and “Miss G”, both 50, were refused “gender re-assignment surgery” in 1996 and 1997 after it was decided none of them had shown a demonstrable “overriding clinical need” for treatment. The health authority, which covers Blackpool and Preston, said it was entitled to take into account its own “scarce resources”.
But the judge ruled yesterday that the health authority was not entitled to operate a policy which interfered with its duty to provide treatment “for the prevention of illness and care of persons suffering from an illness”.
After the ruling, Stephen Lodge, a solicitor for the three transsexuals, said the test case could have nationwide consequences for the treatment of transsexuals. He said: “Other health authorities will now have to assess whether their policies are lawful. We hope it will be easier for transsexuals to obtain the treatment they so clearly need, and that it will help to alleviate the present injustice of arbitrary and unequal treatment by postcode.”
Gerard Clarke, for the health authority, asked for leave to appeal, saying: “This is going to be of considerable importance throughout the health service.”
Miss A, who was in court, said: “It is the end of two years of hard work in fighting this legal battle. They should not have discriminated by post code.” Miss A, who is now living as a woman after hormone treatment, said she felt caught in limbo, which only surgery would end. She said: “At the end of the day I just want to be normal - to achieve a degree of normality. If I don’t, I will probably go mad.” The legal battle, she said, had cost her almost £47,000, enough to pay for several operations.
Mr Clarke told the court earlier that there was appropriate alternative treatment available for transsexuals - those suffering from gender identity disorder - in the form of psychotherapy to reconcile them with their biological nature.
But Nicholas Blake, QC, and Stephanie Harrison, for the applicants, said the health authority had misunderstood the illness. It was not on a par with “body image” cases, such as weight reduction, tattoo removal or operations to reduce the size of breasts or noses.
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