Overview
- The closure was reported by RTÉ’s Prime Time and detailed in a letter from NGS governance chair Brian Cotter to the health minister and HSE chief, calling the decision intensely regrettable.
- A coalition of LGBTQ+ organisations says more than 2,470 people are already waiting, with those now being seen referred about four and a half years ago.
- Community groups estimate anyone referred today would face a wait of over a decade under the current system.
- Advocates, including Transgress, blame a psychiatry‑focused model and gatekeeping for the backlog and press for an informed‑consent, primary‑care‑led approach.
- Campaigners also urge that current NGS clinicians be excluded from designing the new model as the Department of Health and HSE develop a National Clinical Programme for gender healthcare.