To a certain extent, it depends whether or not your local PCT has an exclusive contract with Porterbrook. Then again, six years is an utterly ridiculous amount of time to have to wait for specialist gender care, and I imagine you'd have a very good case for asking to be referred instead to Charing Cross (I understand the waiting list there is between six and eight months for an initial appointment). If I were you, I'd attend my meeting with the local psychiatrist armed with information about the respective waiting lists (telephone both clinics and speak to managers/admin staff); given the apparently huge difference, it'd be entirely reasonable for you to request the (much) shorter option.
The more I think about it the more scared I get about thy psych.
I tend to get a little paranoid about people in a position to abuse power, regardless of whether they ever have or not.
It sort of makes me worry that the PCT may have told him they don't have the cash for all this gender stuff so just tell people they need prozac to cheer them up and send them away....
No, the clinic hasn't moved to Ealing Hospital. It's still based at Hammersmith, in the grounds of Charing Cross Hospital. It's just no longer in the actual hospital itself, but a separate building: the Claybrook Centre.
And the waiting list, excluding the local psychiatrist, may be nearer eight than six months, but certainly isn't a year (although the PCT faffing around for funding might add a few months' delay, pre-referral to Charing Cross itself).
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I tend to get a little paranoid about people in a position to abuse power, regardless of whether they ever have or not.
It sort of makes me worry that the PCT may have told him they don't have the cash for all this gender stuff so just tell people they need prozac to cheer them up and send them away....
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And the waiting list, excluding the local psychiatrist, may be nearer eight than six months, but certainly isn't a year (although the PCT faffing around for funding might add a few months' delay, pre-referral to Charing Cross itself).
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