Top British sex change doctor faces damages claims

As reported in the Guardian

The General Medical Council (GMC) today declared that the UK's top expert on transsexualism inappropriately rushed patients into sex changing treatments.

Its inquiry into the consultant psychiatrist Dr Russell Reid found that he gave five patients hormones too soon and referred them for genital surgery without an adequate assessment of their health or proof that they were transsexuals.

The GMC disciplinary panel said Dr Reid's treatment of the patients, referred to only as B, C, D, E and F, was inappropriate, not in their best interests and in breach of international guidelines on the treatment of transsexuals.

The panel is due to announce later this week whether the findings amount to serious professional misconduct. If Dr Reid is found guilty, he could face being struck off the medical register.

The panel chairman, John Shaw, said: "The panel has concluded that the facts would not be insufficient to support a finding of serious professional misconduct."

Dr Reid was found to have prescribed hormones to Patient B despite lacking any evidence to corroborate that she was transsexual. She told the inquiry she was severely depressed and felt trapped in gender limbo.

The gender psychiatrist was found to have given Patient C, a convicted paedophile, hormones and referred him for surgery too quickly and without evidence that he was truly transsexual. Patient C - a male-to-female transsexual who has reverted to living as a man - told the inquiry that he wanted his sex change reversed.

Dr Reid was found to have prescribed Patient D male hormones against the advice in a second opinion provided by another psychiatrist. The patient, who wanted to change sex in order to fulfil a delusion that she was turning into Jesus, only avoided surgery to remove both her breasts because she was sectioned and diagnosed with manic depression. She told the inquiry she was never transsexual and claimed she had been misdiagnosed by Dr Reid.

The disciplinary panel determined that Dr Reid also prescribed patients E and F with hormones too quickly and without an adequate assessment of their health or proof that they were transsexuals.

He was also found to have repeatedly breached guidelines set by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (IGDA) - regarded as the minimum standards for the treatment of transsexuals.

The findings came as it emerged that Dr Reid now faces a possible multimillion pound claim for damages from six of his former patients who allege he provided them with "rushed and negligent treatment".

One of the six patients was misdiagnosed by the consultant psychiatrist, and the others were fast-tracked into sex-changing treatments in breach of medical guidance, the solicitor handling the proposed group claim, Peter Maughan, alleged today.

Three of the six patients are also involved in the separate GMC inquiry into Dr Reid, which will rule this week upon whether he is guilty of serious professional misconduct.

Mr Maughan said an overall figure for claimed damages had yet to be estimated. He said: "Some lives have been completely destroyed. It's hard to put a figure on that."

But one patient involved in the action, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she was looking for compensation in the region of £500,000 for alleged physical and psychological harm caused by undergoing genital surgery and sex hormone treatment.

Another of the patients, Claudia, said she was given sex-changing hormones and referred for genital surgery after a single appointment with Dr Reid. She claimed she was "rushed" into a sex change and that it had been "devastating" for her.

Claudia, whose case was not investigated by the GMC, added that she welcomed the disciplinary panel's findings today.

She said: "I'm delighted that, after this lengthy delay, the GMC has finally recognised what this man [Dr Reid] was up to. Thank God."

Mr Maughan said no court proceedings had yet been issued but the particulars of the claims and counsels' advice were ready.

A spokeswoman for the Medical Defence Union, which is representing Dr Reid, said it could not comment on the planned legal action against him.

The HBIGDA guidelines are "flexible directions", which are not legally binding and may be modified to suit individual patients. But they are widely regarded by doctors as the minimum standards of care patients should receive.

Dr Reid's defence team claims the complaint against him is motivated by a history of bad blood between him and psychiatrists at the main NHS gender clinic at Charing Cross hospital, west London, who brought the case to the GMC. His QC told the hearing that many patients dissatisfied with Charing Cross had switched to seeing Dr Reid.

Dr Reid also has wide support among the transsexual community. A blog set up by some of his former patients - many of whom call him "Uncle Russell" - has received hundreds of messages of support.