Will the Cabinet Secretary state why only gender-identity patients in Cardiff and the Vale UHB can access prescriptions via specialist GPs in Wales whilst others go to London, and provide a breakdown of how the £500,000 invested to improve gender identity services in Wales was spent in 2016-17 and 2017-18?
The improvements I announced to gender identity services in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (C&VUHB) respond directly to the need in that area, with most people who are waiting for hormone replacement therapy living in the C&VUHB area. Other health boards have alternative arrangements in place to allow patients to receive prescriptions locally.
As outlined in my written statement, these improvements provide the platform for the implementation of an integrated service planned for next year.
We made an additional £500k per year available from 2016-17 to support improvements to gender identity services and we anticipated that due to the need for preparatory work to develop the model with stakeholders, the full allocation would not be utilised initially.
In 2016-17 we provided the Welsh Health Specialist Services Committee (WHSSC) with £50k for the initial preparatory work and in 2017-18, we provided a further £17k for the recruitment of a project lead in WHSSC.
With the commencement of the arrangements in Cardiff and Vale this month, and the opening of the Wales Gender Team next month, we will start to see the improvements in services as a result of this funding.