Complaints time

OK, some of you will remember earlier in the week I took a trip to the doctors and came back asking you to shoot me through the head. I can't remember if I explained why, but I'm going to do so again for the benefit of anyone who doesn't know.

In the UK, the process for medical transition is as follows:

1. Go to GP and ask him to refer you for gender reassignment
- They send you to the mental health team so they can avoid paying for things a little longer
2. Convince mental health you aren't faking it. They send a letter to the GP asking them to refer you to a Gender Identity Clinic (GIC)
3. GP searches for 'exceptional funding' somehow. It's complicated.
4. When funding has been found, GP refers you to GIC
5. You wait for 12 months minimum.
6. You have several appointments before you can get hormones.

Now, I went to my GP probably 8 months ago and asked for a referral. In December I saw mental health and they told my GP to refer me.

In March I went back to the doctors for various reasons and asked him to check how my application was going. He said the secretaries (whoever they are) would phone around, but that it was being dealt with.

Basically at that point I was under the impression that the referral happened anyway. I thought that you were referred and went on the waiting list while they searched for funding. Basically I was content knowing that even though there was a 12 month waiting list for the GIC, I was working my way through it.

Last week I went to the doctors and they decided to tell me the truth. They told me they cannot refer me until funding has been found, and funding has not been found. It has now been 7 months since they were supposed to start looking.

To put this in perspective, the NHS has a recommended wait for procedures of 18 weeks. If you live in a bigger city, funding can be found in a couple of months.

As such, I was very upset.

My mum has taken this to heart. She has decided we are going to make an appointment with the practice manager and see what can be done about it. She has been downloading all sorts of information from all over the place, so I'm apparently complaining whether I like it or not.

I would like to think that the doctors have been hard at work trying to find this funding, but I just don't believe they have.

I changed my name legally in February and gave them my deed poll and change of name details that month. 4 months later my name has still not been changed in their system.

As such, you can see why I don't have a lot of faith in the doctors and their work ethic.

In addition I need to know why nobody bothered to explain the process to me at any point in time, or to inform me how it was going or what they were doing.

So it does serve a purpose complaining I suppose.

Thing is I am scared of doing this.

I don't complain about things, it's not in my nature. I will be the first to admit I need my appointment and I need it soon, but I still can't force myself to become confrontational about it. I just don't want the doctors to treat me badly because we put in a complaint that they were not doing their jobs properly...

Any thoughts on this?