Tory MP Mark Pritchard has called in Parliament for NHS spending on sex change operations to be switched to other patient care.The Wrekin MP told the Commons yesterday that he was not against sex changes, but they were “a matter of choice”.
He said sex change operations were increasing year on year, resulting in rising costs to the NHS which had scarce resources.
Calling for a debate on the issue, Mr Pritchard told MPs: “Many of my constituents do not have access to Alzheimer’s drugs or cancer drugs, but neither of those diseases do they have through choice.”
Commons Leader and Minister for Women Harriet Harman said Mr Pritchard had misunderstood the situation.
“It is not a question of choice. If someone needs to have gender reassignment surgery, it is a question of necessity for them,” she said.
Miss Harman told the Shropshire MP that he would be able to raise the issue during an Opposition debate next week on the NHS when he could ask questions of the relevant minister.
Mr Pritchard said last night that sex change operations were “very expensive”, and he favoured the money being spent on patients with Alzheimer’s or cancer.
“I think the Government should consider these operations being paid for privately so that scarce public funds can be spent on diseases where patients have no choice,” said the Tory MP.
* Transsexuals won the right to have sex change operations on the NHS after a landmark ruling in the Court of Appeal in 1999 which recognised the condition as a legitimate illness.
The cost to the taxpayer of each operation is more than £8,000.
By London Editor John Hipwood
57 Comments
How ignorant. People with gender dysphoria don’t have that by choice either.
I’m not sure what sort of choice it is when many transsexuals often consider that the only alternative to having sex reassignment is suicide. Not only that, but NHS-funded sex reassignment is minimal, and most have to pay privately and go abroad.
Yet another MP who is out of touch with basic facts, and should reseach such more before he asserts these things.
Good to see Mark Pritchard has no clue at all at what he is talking about. If he spent the time to do any research then he would know that it is not a choice at all.
Perhaps someone should point him in the direction of Lynne Jones MP, who heads the parliamentary forum on transsexuality, there is an MP who has common sense.
Perhaps Mark Pritchard might like to give up his seat in Parliament and use that to debate the issue of operations…. alas he might not think that is a safe thing to do, we best leave him to attack the few that cannot fight back.
It is really a pity that he did not do some research to arrive at an informed opinion…surgery or suicide - some choice. :/
How many Billion Pounds does smoking and alchohol abuse cost the NHS per year? but this man seeks what he sees as a soft target. Cynical and prejudiced Tory. No one chooses to be Transsexual, and the cost of treating the small number of People is probably less than treating the depression that would otherwise result
What an ignorant man, having spent 28 years or more helping people with Gender issues, I cannot believe in this day and age a person who is supposed to educated can come out with such a comment.
Who would choose to go through what TS folk have to endure in order have happiness in their life, we save a lot of people from having mental health issues by offering them support.
I think this guy needs to read some of my group’s literature.
What a crass ignorant statement from an MP who obviously has no comprehension of the facts.
The choices generally facing Transgendered are suicide,or having to go through humiliation,painful operations and the consequential severing of family ties.
Some choice.
It never ceases to amaze me how supposedly intelligent people can pontificate about things they know absolutely nothing about, but then that seems to be a prerequisite for an MP.
Believe me Mr Pritchard, nobody choses to be Transgendered.
Taking Drug, Getting drunk every night, Smoking.
Thay are choices!
Why not cut down on free treatment for these idiots first!!!
This kind of talk is very dangerous, gender reassignment is not a choice thing. Do you really think that we take all the abuse from society, lose family, undergo major life and body changes just over a choice, you are very misguided.
If Mark Pritchard has his way, the suicide rate for transsexuals would rise rapidly, how would he explain that.
Many transsexuals cannot get work due to open or disguided discrimination, and therefore could not save up the private funds needed.
Besides who is to say what is and is not a life saving and neccesary operation.
I think this shows a total lack of knowledge and understanding of Gender Dysphoria.
The cost to the NHS is miniscule in comparison to other treatments. Furthermore, what this MP clearly fails to understand is that in not treating the condition of transsexualism - confirmed by juriceprudence as recognised medical condition (as if the DSM or ICD, or even the facts looking people in the face were not enough!) - the resulting outpatient care for anxiety and depression, to cost in policing to deal with trans people being attacked, the cost of inpatient care of all those likely to crack under the stress and pain of the condition, and the cost to the state benefits system due to the resulting inability to work… well, lets just summarise and say that his suggestion doesn’t work. The facts are that it costs more to not treat the condition than it does to treat it. This man has his head in the clouds - where his feet are I don’t know, but they certainly arn’t on the earth! Shame on him, as he should know better.
Sadly, Mark Pritchard seems ill-informed and appears to be singling out a particularly vulnerable minority with a disturbingly high suicide rate.
Being transsexual is not a lifestyle choice. It is a profoundly distressing recognised psychological condition. People do not ‘choose’ to be transsexual. But they merit compassion and support if they are.
They are a very small minority group of a few thousand in the country, and there was all-party support for the gender recognition legislation which set out to help them. The NHS costs are small compared to the accrued costs that would arise if transsexual men and women were left in limbo, suffering psychologically, and in many cases stranded and unable to carry on, therefore becoming dependent on the state for far more costly support.
We should support transsexual individuals, and try to understand that they do not ‘choose’ their condition. It’s not some sort of trendy lifestyle choice.
Yawn…It’s the old ‘political’ tactic of turning people against each other - ie. ‘divide and rule’. This time it’s transsexuals versus Alzheimers & Cancer Patients. Neither of which, self-serving, parasitic psuedo-politicians really give a fig about. Be sure your sins will find you out!
Mark Pritchard appears to be an overweight man. I wonder how the cost of this excess, quite possibly the result of ‘choice’, compares with that of sex-change treatment.
back in the day men were made of steel and ships were made of wood. now there is all this confusion about gender roles and many a teenager going through the angst of childhood now finds themselves branded with a label that doesnt fit and it sticks for the rest of their lives.
Whereas back in the good old days of men made out of steel (Stalin?) and wooden sailing ships Marco, those gender confused teenagers may well have literally been branded.
Again we see a minority having half truths told against it.
The inference here being that every TS is going to cost the “taxpayer” £8k!!!
Firstly not all of us need or want surgery or hormone treatment.
Secondly we are taxpayers too?
Mr Pritchard is an ignorant, publicity hungry fool.
Please vote him out when you get the chance.
Very true, Paula Sion. And, also the ‘news’ report here is keen to emphasize *more than* £8,000 - which could mean anything from £8,000 to upwards of £8 billion. Surely, an impartial report would have read something like ‘in-between £8,000 and whatever’ (but not as much as the sky’s the limit!) Biased reporting?
I have been fighting for the right for funding in Wales for over seven years, with no joy, MPs have no idea what those of us have to go through, a “sex change” or rather gender reassignment, is not a matter of choice, it is a correction of our birth right.
I have many letters claiming that health authorities would rather fund the problems of those who over weight or those with drug problems.
It’s about time the the goverment realised how many people are “saved” with the help of funding for gender reassignment.
Choice.. Hmmm? Yes, I had a choice when I had my reassignment surgery a year and a half ago, as do those who go through other major life saving surgery. It was just that, a choice between life and death. For those who suffer deep Gender Dysphoria, the depression more often than not is such that strong suicidal feelings take hold.
Yes, it is expensive for the NHS but the authorities who tick the right boxes should look long and hard at the monitory & human costs. What would be most expensive? A short time of psychiatric treatment and surgery or a person spending the rest of their lives receiving intense psychiatric treatment and living a life in abject misery.
I’m not saying anything against Mr Mark Pritchard except that as an MP he should not show his ignorance when holding such an important position but should learn the facts before making such crass and bigoted remarks because others holding the same lack of knowledge would follow like sheep. I would hope that most Conservative Party members would show a little more intelligence and if they are not educated within this field, they would begin to research a subject that has for far too long, remained taboo.
‘Transsexuals won the right to have sex change operations on the NHS after a landmark ruling in the Court of Appeal in 1999 which recognised the condition as a legitimate illness.’
This is the kind of thing that gets people’s backsup, it as if thy are saying all TS folk can get surgery on the NHS and it costs eight grand a time!
We know this to not be the case anymore, and they make it sound like it is! I notice it doesn’t say, ‘depending on where you live in the UK, you ‘might’ be able to have the surgery’! They make it sound like we can all go get our surgery willy nilly!
Disgraceful to attack the trans communtity saying we cost too much, when they wont fund half the operations or even hormones people have been needing!
And to say this is a choice is yet again ridiculous. This MP need educating, he needs to learn the facts before spouting his mouth off about things he knows nothing about!
mark pritchard i suggest you join ukip, so that when you speak no one will take any notice. there is nothing worse than verbal diorrea in a politician. you should be ashamed to represent a shropshire constituency. hopefully your local association will soon give you the heave ho
As a Tory voter and party activist with GID (known to Party HQ), someone who has had SRS on the NHS, I can say I’m more qualified to speak here than Mark Pritchard.
I can honestly say that my life has been changed dramatically since the operation. Earlier, my employer dismissed me; I had no legal recourse. Without a job, a source of income, how could I afford the private fees?
I felt discriminated against, as have many others in my position.
Mr Pritchard says this is a matter of choice. I say it is not. If Mr Pritchard wants to look at saving costs due to a life style choice, then maybe abortions, lung disorders caused through smoking and tattoo removals should be considered first. Not so easy now, is it?
Transgendered, like other minorities, are an easy target.
The MP should research the facts, before letting rip.
HL.
Is this MP going to go to all the families of people who have gender dysphoria and taken there own life’s through not getting there Surgery. Is he going to explain why they were refused funding to the families and why they are now without there loved one’s as they can’t live there life without surgery. There is a lot of us who can’t afford to pay for there surgery and need the help of the NHS to fund this.
Yeah its typical of misguided ill informed politicians jumping onto something that seems to grab headlines.
I didn’t choose to be TS and certainly wouldn’t want to do it as a life choice, it involves loss of friends, family, decent jobs are closed to you because of ignorant employers who don’t understand much about it and end up discriminating against someone who will work harder and has generally less problems than drunks, druggies etc.
To get treatment on NHS is a very long drawn out affair and seeing how most of us go private anyway the cost to the NHS is very low and besides we pay our taxes so we have a right to be treated on the NHS, after all we are paying for that right, parasites like this politician should be kicked out and banned from representing decent hard working people.
How much is this parasite collecting from the taxpayer in wages and expenses, I bet its far more than the cost of the few Operations carried out each year!!!!
are we really suprised . they scalp this country and live happily on perks .these so called educated people given power can be so thick at times to the actual goings on around them .
a nice bubble they live in but it will burst one day ………..welcome to the world
Who does this man think he is, he obviously knows nothing about Gender Identity disorder. It’s not a choice at all it is a genuine recognised treatable medical condition which is outlined in the NHS manual of treatable conditions. He also should concider the fact that we have put into the NHS pot just like every other tax paying citizen. The fact that many of his constiuants don’t have acsess to certain types of treatments is of no fault of Transsexuals………..is it now? Maybe Mr Pritchard should actually do some research along with some maths, he may find out to his horror that it costs the NHS more per year to treat drug addicts and mothers coming in from overseas to give birth than it does to treat Transsexuals. Mark Pritchard you are a discrace.
gender dysphoria - gender reasignment is not a choice. smoking and related health issues IS a CHOICE. Cut funding to the smoking issues instead and save much more of tax payers money.
It’s so good to see that the Tory ‘Care Campaign’ is starting to show up some rather large cracks! It is such a shame people have such short memories and have forgotten what 18 years of Conservative government did to the country and more importantly the most vulnerable in our society.
Yes, I am transsexual, but all the years of mental problems I have suffered in attempting to be a ‘real man’ has cost the NHS far in excess of what the operation would cost it! Mind you if the tories now get in and scrap the operation on the NHS, the only charge to the state will be at my suicide inquest!
Wonder if anyone has referred Pritchards comments, and the very strong reaction against them to Conservative central office?
Might be what one would expect a journalist to do, but do the Star have any?
i think he’s right to raise this issue
though it could be framed as a mental health issue that needs treating i think most normal folk (who incidently fund all this) would think it odd and unworthy of public subsidy
We must retain public faith in public services or they will cease to be funded, as such i think the right honourable gentleman is correct to argue that the NHS should not fund sex changes
well its confirmed MPs do talk a load of cods wallop and get paid well for it as a full time ts and in full time employment i pay my nhs contribution and income tax and would not like to see another ts go through what i have been through to achieve my goal.If Mr Pritchard is so concerned about tax payers money been wasted then by all means let all the mps take a pay cut and loose all the fringe benifits they fiddle from us the tax payers
There is a finite amount of funding available to the NHS therefore treatments have to be prioritised. Can you tell me why, if the NHS cannot pay for both, the funding for someone who wants/needs a sex change operation takes priority over funding for the drugs that give an Altzheimer patient a better quality of life, especially given that several Altzheimer patients can be treated for the same amount of money as sex change operation.
I don’t question that the people who receive sex change operations ‘need’ the operations, I don’t know them or their medical history but shouldn’t we be pushing for this profligate government who waste millions of pounds, to fund the NHS properly instead of wasting our money on useless ‘white elephants’? Then we would not have to argue about who gets funding for what in the NHS.
Looking at the blog comments is interesting - in terms of public opinion I am suprised and pleased to see how liberal shropshires bloggers appear - in terms of vote it looks like only 1 against Transexuals having free sex changes and about 30 odd in favour (though most appear to be transexual who felt the need to comment) the MP appears (unsuprisingly) totally out of touch and its rightly highlighted hes showing that the Conservative Party rhetoric may have changed but they are still the same old nasty party, illiberal and old fashioned to the core, against all but white, healthy, wealthy, hetrosexual, christian married males…. Well guess what - all the voters arent and thats why we’ll never get another tory government
the mp just tells it like it is - some of these bloggers must be members of some kind of transgender equality group or something - i smell a rat - this is just not the ”man on the street” view of normal british people. You ask anyone honestly they will say transexuals are freaks and wont want to pay for them to do anything, i cant believe all these pro-transexual comments are genuine public opinion
Well said Mr Pritchard. NHS money should be spent on the treatment of things like cancer etc not people who choose sex change ops they are not life or death. Want cosmetic surgery pay for it yourself.
The wait in Sheffield to even see a therapist on the NHS about gender dysphoria is 6 years. In that time my mental state deteriorated severely enough that I have claimed enough Incapacity Benefit to pay for my required surgery twice over. If it were not for inheritance handing me the finance to access private help I’d be in that position for a good while longer.
Even if you just dispassionately consider the financial side, treating people makes them better workers and therefore better tax payers. I would have cost the tax payer far LESS money had my condition been treated in a sensible time frame.
Failure to provide care to those with gender dysphoria would ultimately result in more people on Incapacity Benefit or institutionalised. If this MP claims to not be prejudiced, then he must simply be unforgivably short sighted.
Coming from the US, and as a genetic female, who has birthed two genetic male sons, I can state this much:
In my travels, I’ve not yet met any truly transgendered men or women whose adjustments were merely “cosmetic” or “by choice”, but a lifesaving measure.
Smoking two packs of cigarettes a day is a choice,which results in emphhysema,cancer, etc.
Consuming vast quantities of food is a choice, whih results in cardivascular difficulties, specified areas of malnutrition, obesity…
I’ll never understand humans…
What’s a normal British person, jonny and, more to the point, why haven’t we heard anything from the elusive Mark Pritchard - are we to take it that his silence is his admission that he now realises that he is wrong? Or is it that Tory politicians just won’t lower themselves to ’slum it’ with the ‘normal British people’?
I shall repeat what I said erlier to answer the sad biggoted view of JONNY 5 (I hope he can read because he obviously cannot think)and the other uneducated veiws of the last few contributors, I would love to meet you to show how devastating this condition is.. Quote: Choice.. Hmmm? Yes, I had a choice when I had my reassignment surgery a year and a half ago, as do those who go through other major life saving surgery. It was just that, a choice between life and death. For those who suffer deep Gender Dysphoria, the depression more often than not is such that strong suicidal feelings take hold.
Yes, it is expensive for the NHS but the authorities who tick the right boxes should look long and hard at the monitory & human costs. What would be most expensive? A short time of psychiatric treatment and surgery or a person spending the rest of their lives receiving intense psychiatric treatment and living a life in abject misery.
I’m not saying anything against Mr Mark Pritchard except that as an MP he should not show his ignorance when holding such an important position but should learn the facts before making such crass and bigoted remarks because others holding the same lack of knowledge would follow like sheep. I would hope that most Conservative Party members would show a little more intelligence and if they are not educated within this field, they would begin to research a subject that has for far too long, remained taboo.
Becky, I suspect Mr Pritchard isn’t getting involved in this thread because he’s achieved what he wanted to do - ie turned people against each other by poisoning susceptible people’s minds against a harmless minority.
It’s an old trick - he’s only doing what other power hungry wannable leaders have done throughout history and continue to do (just look at Mugabe) in their attempts to cultivate popularity amongst the masses by creating convenient scapegoats to blame problems on. So what happens when the problems facing the NHS don’t get solved by being mean to trannsexuals? Whatever - btw wonder if Mr Pritchard goes NHS or priveate? In any case, do you honestly think he really cares about the issue at hand?
Then again, maybe he can’t be bothered to read The Shropshire Star because it’s readers are the last people he gives a fig about!
As a Transexual myself, I would now consider joining my local NHS board and funding Mr Pritchard’s complete Gender Re-assignment. He is in true mental denial as a man, and is taking it out on the trans community. Other then that the NHS is for every Man/Transexual/Woman and child to beome. Let’s arm-up for change and education for the better.
Well Mr Pritchard I am one of your constituents and someone who voted for you last time and someone who really wants to see a tory government after Labours spin city but theres no way I will vote for you now. £8000 and howmany have the local Primary Care Trust funded? Whats the average claim for an MPs expenses? Prat!
At the tender age of 20 were it not for the life-saving help from the NHS I would not be here today. Perhaps not from suicide, but beaten to death, marginalised and victimised. I am now 28 and have lived more in the past eight years than ever I did in my first twenty. I am now a fully functional member of society. One of the many Trans people who are stealth; never known as anything other than who we are today. A teacher, a taxpayer. A young woman living her life. Step back eight years and the broken student, socially awkward, shy - an outcast - could never have dreamed of the life I now have.
When choosing someone to blame for shortfalls in the NHS be careful of who that is. Perhaps Mr Pritchard should examine the billions spent in far away lands in the pursuit of oil veiled as democracy rather than the thousands spent at home in the name of compassion, understanding and acceptance he may find a better escape goat.
Once again, the genetic-female, barking mad American mother speaks…
I am unfamiliar with the politics and policies in the UK, and I am only remotely familiar with the difficulties which people who are in gender transition have to bear; however, I stand by my statement that those who are transgendered/transexual are not in the situation that they are in by any more “choice” than a child born with a missing limb, or than a child born with respiratory difficulties like asthma, etc.
It seems to me that NHS spending on those particular life-saving issues are not in question, but in matters of gender and psychology therin, measures are continually being challenged.
Conversely, taxpayers here and abroad are paying towards care for typical afflictions as diabetes, cancer, emphysema, lung disease, and others - afflictions which are consequences largely brought upon the patients by their life choices.
I reiterate…I cannot understand humans…
It is clear that Mr Pritchard’s needs educating, exactly why is this man an MP; perhaps this MP can expalin why another MP gets £150,000 taxi expenses; waste millions on a NHS computer sytem that will be out of date before implemented.
Perhaps Mr Pritchard ought to tackle those entering this country for free medical treatment and leaving again whithout anyone challenging them.
Make racist comments on anyone and the law is down on you, make ignorant statements and often offensive comments on transsexuals it is perfectly acceptable; I call for this MP to resign.
Yours failthfully ( an average british person)
SA
I think Mr Pritchard fails to realise that most care trusts limit the number of surgeries they pay for to two or three a year.
Some limit this even further, or set unrealistic critiria that must be met.
Cancer drugs that cost as much as, if not more than a “sex change” a month, which at best extend life by a year are more cost effective?
If we’re playing the pure numbers game, no. Are they worth it? To the people involved, yes.
Maybe he should worry about the lack of funds for education. Camnpaign for that and then go back and get an education. The words of a typically ignorant bigot. Its far better to appear stupid than open ones mouth and confirm it.
John H said: Jun 23rd, 2008 at 11:40 am i think he’s right to raise this issue
though it could be framed as a mental health issue that needs treating i think most normal folk (who incidently fund all this) would think it odd and unworthy of public subsidy
Wrong!! Its been proven *NOT* to be a mental health issue but a medical fact, actually proven by reasearch both private and NHS. People have no idea how many hoops the various phycs and so called experts put transexual people through. I know people that have waited 2+ years just for an initial consultation and then 8 years for treatment to finish. Then again I have known people who have taken their own lives out of sheer frustration and utter despair at what the NHS puts them through. So do people really think that they do what they do out of choice? If so then they are so wrong and have no right to criticise or pass comment on something they clearly have no idea about.
Fran said: Jun 23rd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Well said Mr Pritchard. NHS money should be spent on the treatment of things like cancer etc not people who choose sex change ops they are not life or death. Want cosmetic surgery pay for it yourself.
Reassignment surgery not a matter of life and death??? Maybe I should show you the deep, deep scars I have from self-harm I inflicted whilst fighting against who I really am!! Then you could tell me this is NOT a matter of life and death!!
Most cancers are a result of personal environmental factors, known or unknown. The sufferers could have moved or chosen a different lifestyle, so taken to its logical extreme, cancer surgery should be banned on the NHS as sufferers ‘MUST HAVE KNOWN’ they were at risk and could have moved!! I don’t of course mean that, but I am applying the same perverse logic to a group in desperate need as Fran applied to transsexuality!!
Hi jonny 5, You have a point on the responses to this!
Is it possible that the Joe Public don’t really care, because this does not affect them directly? Whereas, could it be that Transexuals really care, because it really does affects them directly.
Now perhaps thats why the expected response, does not come from the majority. Consider the majority of cases in hospital, and in care, that we pay NI for. Is’nt it surprising that there are so many people there because they have smoked, drank, taken drugs, have had bad diets etc. These are people who do have the advantage of making a choice, however they chose not to exercise it?
The Transexual, on the other hand, is someone who has not had a choice, they were born in the wrong body, with the mind and emotions of the other sex! These are human beings - not freaks!
I agree that treatment should be available on the NHS, as it should be with many other mental illnesses (term taken from the landmark ruling mentioned above). However, I do wonder whether cheaper alternative solutions are available, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, that changes the mind to fit the body, rather than the other way around.
Hi Davinia,
Having worked as a volunteer for a Mental Health charity, as well as having the benefit of a few transgendered people as friends, I would agree that your Mental Health is not the reason for wanting to change your gender, it is medical!
It can become a mental health problem as well as medical, because of societys attitude towards that person, and because of the hoops and hurdles that authority puts in their way, as they dont really understand the situation.
All of which is very depressing for the person concerned, and over a prolonged period of time turns into long-term depression or even suicide.
We all pay our national insurance and are therefore entitled to whatever treatment we need. Perhaps the NHS would have more money at its disposal if the government spent more on saving lives rather than on killing, by funding wars!!
“The taxpayer”??? All the transsexual people I know - and I am one - pay tax. We’d quite like a say on how it’s spent, thank you.
I am heartened by the responses to this, but feel that more needs to be done to educate people on TG issues,,, Being TG is NOT a mental health issue,, it is a physiological birth anomoly where, to put it bluntly,, the structure of the brain is at variance with the contents of the underpants.
It cannot be “cured” any more than a left handed person can be “cured” by being made to write, work and eat right handed.
Most of us can have our symptoms alleviated by simply being allowed to “be” without fear of being called “freaks” “weirdos” or “Paedophiles”(?? Interesting as having a female brain I am 111 times less likely to be a paedo then the average man!)
Some of us need Hormone treatment, some need surgery. But, as I said earlier,,, most of us ARE actually tax payers?