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High Court Clears Private Gender Clinic to Prescribe Hormones for 16-17-Year-Olds

The ruling marks the first judicial affirmation of private sector hormone access for 16-17-year-olds under CQC oversight.

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Overview

  • Mrs Justice Eady dismissed the challenge by a former nurse and another claimant, finding the Care Quality Commission’s decisions within a rational range.
  • The CQC registered Birmingham’s Gender Plus Hormone Clinic in January 2024, rated it outstanding, and maintained its registration in December without imposing prescribing conditions.
  • GPHC, founded by former GIDS clinicians Dr Aidan Kelly and Paul Carruthers, offers masculinising and feminising hormones to 16-to-25-year-olds through its own multidisciplinary team and does not prescribe puberty blockers.
  • Baroness Cass’s April 2024 review urged extreme caution and clear clinical rationale before prescribing hormones to 16-17-year-olds, a safeguard NHS England requires via national MDT endorsement that remains unissued.
  • NHS England has launched three regional specialist gender clinics with plans for five more by 2026, all dependent on national MDT approvals that have yet to be granted for under-18 hormone treatment.