This was first published in the QueerAF Website, Join 10K readers who understand the LGBTQIA+ news every Saturday
The NHS has cancelled every gender-affirming surgery for patients of the Welsh Gender Service with immediate effect, QueerAF and What The Trans!? can exclusively reveal.
This includes pre-operative assessments and scheduled surgeries. Some trans patients received the news just days or even hours before they were due to undergo procedures, according to NHS correspondence sent to patients and seen by QueerAF.
While we don’t have exact data for the number of Welsh Gender Service (WGS) patients scheduled to undergo gender-affirming surgery, hundreds of people will be immediately affected. Last year, nearly 1,500 people were waiting for a first appointment at the WGS.
The pause on surgeries comes after calls earlier this year from Welsh Tories for a review into the WGS – apparently prompted by claims in a blog article by an independent journalist, which were subsequently repeated in The Times last weekend – Nation Cymru
Trans healthcare in Wales is provided by NHS Wales through the WGS, based at St David’s Hospital in Cardiff. The WGS carries out first appointments and then patients are seen by a network of clinicians forming local gender hubs – Welsh Gender Service
As of March 2025, 1,439 people were waiting for a first appointment at the WGS. As we reported in the Gender Clinic Files last year, the waiting time for a first appointment with the WGS is two years.
The cancellation of gender-affirming surgeries comes after Natasha Asghar, the Welsh Conservatives’ health spokesperson at the Senedd, wrote in June to Mabon ap Gwynfor, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, asking for an independent review into the WGS.
Asghar told Gwynfor she had read an “extremely concerning news article” about the WGS.
“These revelations are incredibly concerning and, in my view, warrant a closer inspection. To that end, will you commit to launching a full independent review into the service’s practices and leadership as a matter of urgency?” Asghar wrote – Nation Cymru
The news article Asghar was referring to was apparently a blog post by gender-critical freelance journalist Nick Wallis, published on 23 May.
Based on responses to Freedom of Information requests, Wallis raised concerns alleging a lack of data collected on the number of patients being prescribed hormone replacement therapy. The blog also examined data showing the WGS refer people for “irreversible gender surgeries” at a rate he claims is three to four times higher than the UK average, and that the WGS was referred for an independent review in 2024 that has not yet begun.
On 20 August, Nation Cymru reported that a meeting of the Quality, Safety and Outcomes Sub-Committee at NHS Wales on 24 August would discuss the WGS, which was described in the meeting agenda as “currently under consideration as a potential Service of Concern”.
The agenda says that concerns “include higher rates of surgical referral than seen in comparable services” and “concerns regarding referral appropriateness”.
“Given the significance of the emerging concerns, enhanced governance and oversightarrangements are being considered ahead of completion of the independentreview of adult gender services in Wales,” the meeting agenda notes – NHS Wales
Then, on 22 August, Wallis wrote an article for The Times that was headlined, “Another Tavistock scandal is brewing in Wales” – The Times
Five days later, trans patients began receiving phone calls telling them that their surgeries were cancelled.
In a statement to QueerAF, David Fluck, Executive Medical Director at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, confirmed the pause of referrals for gender affirming surgery and scheduled surgeries “while an independent clinical review is undertaken.
“The pause applies specifically to referrals for gender affirming surgery, surgical assessments and surgery. Other elements of care provided by the Welsh Gender Service, including hormone therapy support, endocrine review and psychological support services, continue to operate and are not affected by this decision.”NHS England declined to comment.
QueerAF has approached the NHS Gender Dysphoria National Referral Support Services for comment.
