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Implications of the MPTS Hearing
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Manage episode 298167322 series 2475273
On this special episode of the GenderGP podcast, Helen and Marianne sit down and talk about the upcoming Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service hearing. Helen shares her hopes and fears for what’s to come, talks about her support from the community, and tells her story – in her own words.
If you have been affected by any of the topics discussed in our podcast, and would like to get in touch, please contact us via the Help Centre. You can also contact us on social media where you will find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.
The GenderGP Podcast
Implications of the MPTS Hearing
Hi, everyone on a slightly different podcast today. It’s just Marianne and I, and I have to say for the first time I feel nervous. I feel a bit kind of, uh, I dunno, emotional, I guess, because what we are talking about the last five years and how Gender GP started, how it progressed, and then how it has ended up in a, at the end of July in a, a big 55 day tribunal hearing, which will be hearing, um, whether my medical license, um, can be reinstated. It’s been a long, long journey, but I thought it would be a good idea just to share with you how things have unraveled. And I’ve got my good friend Marianne with me today because she’s been with me from the start and she’s a good sounding board and anyone out there who’s ever had a, a cry on Marianne’s shoulder.
I think, you know, she’s an appropriate person to guide me through the story that I’m about to tell you. So back in 2015, I was a, a GP in a small Valley’s village in Wales as quite a deprived area. And I was one of those doctors who kind of thought that I’d never really met that many trans people before. We certainly didn’t have lots and lots of trans patients in our surgery, if any, at all. So I’d obviously I’d met trans patients in my work doing sexual health, but not in a kind of general practice setting. And one day a patient came to see me. She was about 55 ish, I guess. So we’re in Wales, we’re in the valleys. And she said to me, I want to transition and how do I go about it? And I was like, I dunno, I’ve got no idea.
You know, I’m fairly new to Wales. I don’t know how this is gonna go, but I’ll look it up and I’ll come back to you and come back and see me next week. So I did a bit of research and I realized when she came back to see me next week, um, and told her what I’d found as I told her, what we had to do, basically what I was telling her was she would have to get on a train from this valley village. And there would be one change on the train to get to Cardiff another change from Cardiff to get to London. And she would have to go to London on this train and turn up at the clinic there wearing a dress. She’d have to go wearing something that made her look like a woman. And she would have to then see the consultants there.
And as I was telling her this story, you know, even the first bit, even the first bit getting on the train to the local train station to do the change to card, if was just not in this person’s radar, nevermind presenting female on a train into London where she’d never before. As I kind of relayed the story, my words fell away. And I was like, this is just not gonna happen. Is it? And we, we both shook our heads. And I said, I tell you what, come back next week. I’ll look up how to do it. and next week we’ll have a chat. So she came back next week, by which time I’d looked up, how to do it. And actually what I’d realized was so somebody who wants to undergo medical transition, they’re born with a body that makes the wrong set of hormones for them.
So if you’re a trans female, your body makes the testosterone hormone. And if you’re born with a, a female looking body, your ovaries will make that estrogen hormone. It gives you the changes that everyone recognizes to be female, but actually what trans people who are wanting to medically transition, they want the hormone that matches their identity so that they have the external body features and the internal kind of psychological features that match their gender identity. And these are kind of hormones that I, myself, as a GP and a sexual health health, doctor was really, really used to manipulating whether it’s contraception, um, for younger people, whether it’s, uh, men menopause treatment for older, oh, middle aged, sorry. sorry. All you menopausal people out there. People, these are hormones I’m so used to dealing with. And so basically we said, right. Okay, well, let’s put you on there.
A hormone replacement therapy, that’s more associated with female. I E estrogen. I found loads of stuff on the internet about protocols and shared care agreements and the way that it should be done. And it was easy peasy. And she was delighted. We had a really good relationship and it worked out really well. And then it was at the same time, I was really interested developing the digital technology and medicine. Why was everyone shopping on the internet? Why was everybody banking on the internet? But no one was doing healthcare on the internet and I’d made a little webpage just because I love technology love, stuff like that. Sorry, Marianne. I know that’s not your, not your favorite. And I made a website and, um, I put some information on there, all the things that I had discovered about helping trans people and, and, and where trans people should go for help.
And I put it on there, there, and I always say it was like, I woke up the next morning and there was just a massive deluge of people. Who’d come to my little tiny one page website. And I just thought, goodness gracious me. There is a need here. There is a need for information for people who were wanted knowledge about medical transition. So I researched some more and I wrote some more and I, I looked at more guidelines and I tried to look for training, but there wasn’t any. And then as I was looking, I came across the stories of people who were trying to access healthcare at the moment and my heart. I, I, I, I dunno, I don’t know what I, it was awful. The stories that I was hearing of self harm and suicide and anxiety and depression of prejudice, of discrimination, of poor access to care.
And I, I was, I felt ashamed and embarrassed that my profession was treating a section of society in that way. And I think what really hit me was that, that there were young people being affected by this as well. And I, I, I was just, like I say, staggered astounded, disappointed, shocked. I couldn’t believe it. It was about 2016. So it was the time that the women in the equalities report came out and they pulled no punches. You know, they stated very clearly that the NHS is letting down trans people. And I was like, whoa, you know, that’s quite a statement to be making people don’t criticize. Um, the UK NHS that’s bold. So Gender GP was born. It bought, it, came from a little one page website and it, it developed into I’ll put everything here that I learn everything here that people want to know, and I will answer your questions and I will try and help you.
And before long people were like, okay, that’s really interesting, but hang on a minute, aren’t you a doctor? Um, could you like help me medically? And I was like, well, I guess I can. Why not? You know, I am a doctor. I have the power to assess, to diagnose, to evaluate, to create management plans, to prescribe, to monitor. That’s what doctors do. And I was like, well, why not? You’re a person you need help. You can’t get it. I will help you. That’s what doctors do. Maybe that was naive. But I thought that that was the right thing to do, to help alleviate suffering and to help the trans people that I was hearing from to be able to live their lives better. And then I remember at the end of 2016, the trustee from GIRES trustees from GIRES, Bernard and Terry Reed who have become a great friends, sadly, Terry Reed has recently passed and my thought go to Bernard, but they contacted me and said, Helen, we’d like to meet you.
And I was like, oh, goodness gracious to me. I felt a bit scared. Actually. I was like, you know, this is a big charity, um, running for a very long time and they wanted to meet me. So anyway, my husband and I, Mike went to London and we had tea, um, in a hotel with Terry and Bernard, they told, told me ever such a lot. They told me a lot about the way that GIRES had been set up out of a similar kind of thing. Um, their daughter had faced discrimination in the workplace. And so the need was there for education, for law, for policy, and that’s how GIRES was created. And then they told me as well of, of the difficulties that some other doctors had faced when they had tried to help trans people. They told me about two doctors. One was called Richard Curtis, and one was called Russell Reed.
And how the doctors on the NHS had put in complaints about them to the GMC, which is the, the body that regulates doctors and tried to have them stopped working. And they said, Helen, you need to be careful because the same doctors will do the same to you. And I said, Bernard, Terry, don’t worry. I said, I’m safe. I’m not doing anything wrong. I am helping people. That is what doctors do you help people, but that’s what we pledge to do. And they said, but just be careful. And I said, Bernard and Terry, I’m always careful, but thank you for your advice. And we got the train home. And I remember so clearly that we got home and on my step was that envelope that every doctor, dreads, it’s the most awful feeling in the world because you can see that it’s from the GMC and you can see that it’s not a normal envelope.
It’s not the, your direct debit’s failed. And you haven’t paid your, your fees envelope. Uh, it’s not the newsletter envelope. It’s a big pack envelope. And I knew what it was that feeling of fear of terror was enormous. So I opened it up and there was several complaints in there. There was two complaints from Dr. Loma, one of the consultants who works at the London gender clinic as chairing cross as it was then. And he also has a private practice. And there was a complaint from, uh, I don’t know, colleague, friend of his, I don’t know, associate, he’s actually a trans guy who runs a trans charity. Um Alec Rook and they had, had taken it upon themselves to write separately to the GMC, um, about me raising concerns. So they didn’t come to me. I mean, I couldn’t have been more accessible in the trans world.
My website, the email address was at that time was doctor@gendergp.co.UK, which was the site at the time. There’s no point emailing that, by the way, it doesn’t work anymore. I couldn’t have been more accessible. And I’m think thinking to myself, why wouldn’t these colleagues of mine who work in the same field that I’m working? Why wouldn’t they contact me first? Why would they simply just write to my regulatory body and say that we have concerns? And those concerns were so, I don’t know. So nebulous just, you know, she seems to be doing this and she seems to be doing that. And I’m not sure whether she’s qualified and we are sure whether it’s safe or not. And she seems to be casting her net widely. And she seems to be, you know, shouting her words loudly. Um, and it’s like, well, I don’t really see what the problem with that is.
And actually luckily nor did the GMC, they didn’t take very much action on those. They investigated the Alec Rook one for a little while and then came to the, a conclusion that nothing was wrong. But what happened as a result of it was that every time you get an under investigation by the GMC, the GMC tell everybody else. And so they told my employers at the time, my NHS GP employers, and it’s always a bit, there’s no smoke without fire. You know, why would the GMC get involved with the doctor if there wasn’t something wrong? And so, you know, it started a kind of radar on Helen Webberley, which I then learned later was gonna cause me quite a lot of difficulty. The next step was that because the radar had been opened, the CQC is, is an organization who regulates services in England.
And the healthcare inspector Wales is a body that regulates services in Wales. And my employers had written to both of those saying, I can see that Helen’s got a website. Is she registered? And so I didn’t actually know at the time I had to be registered bit naive of me. I know. And so they both wrote me and said, hang on a minute. If you’re doing that, you need to be registered. And I was like, oh God, sorry. Yeah, no problem. I will do it straight away. It turns out that because I’m not in England, I didn’t need to be with CQC, but HIW was like, no problem. And they were like, no problem. And so there was discussion back and forth, like, should I register my website or my company or me, or there’s quite a lot of discussions. A couple of applications went in as, as that registration process was happening.
Professor Butler from GIZ wrote again, decided that he would add his concerns to the mix. Without speaking to me, he wrote to the GMC and said, we’ve got a doctor here who’s helping children. And he made a specific complaint about one of the young people that I was treating, or that I had treated. And the issues that he said were very serious. He implied that I had seriously harmed this young person, actually, that didn’t turn out to be true, but that’s not for me to evaluate. So, you know, when the GMC received yet another complaint of the same vein from another eminent person within the NHS, of course, there are alarm bells have got to ring again. So I had the same pack through the door, which I was getting a bit used to by now. And this time it looks serious. A young person might have been harmed.
And then at the same time, my LHB, which is my NHS employee, is because they heard, I was under investigation. Again, they themselves wrote to the GMC and said, we are worried about this doctor because she’s under investigation. And so the GMC added that to the pack. And I’m like, well, hang on a minute. That’s not very fair because you put me under investigation and then you tell my health board, and then they write to you and say, we are very worried about this doctor because she’s under investigation. I like, okay, nevermind. So, and at the same time, they, they both wrote to the healthcare inspector Wales who at that time had been very willing to register me. And then the healthcare inspector Wales said, okay, well, hang on a minute. She’s under investigation. My health board suspended me and said, you’re not gonna work as a GP anymore while, while all this is going on.
And so the healthcare inspector Wales said, well, well, we’re not registering you then. And, and they canceled my registration. And then they wrote to the GMC and said, she’s operating without a license. And I’m like, whoa, can this get any worse? And it was like this vortex of three big bodies talking about me, all kind of getting completely and utterly in a whirlwind. And I was just a tiny, the spec of dust in the middle of this vortex caught up in it. It was just horrendous. So in the same month, I was invited to a, a, a panel in front of the GMC who stopped me from working with trans people. Well, actually, that’s not quite true. They said I could work with trans people if I had a supervisor, but my supervisor had to be approved by the doctor who had just suspended me from being a GP.
And that doctor just kept saying, no, I’m not approving it. So basically I couldn’t work with trans people. I couldn’t work as a GP. And then the HIW wouldn’t register my service and said, your service has to close. And I was like, I can’t close. I’ve got a thousand people. I’m looking after I can’t, what am I gonna do with them all? And they just said, oh, the NHS will look after them. And I’m like, you’re missing the point because the point is that the NHS isn’t looking after these people, but nobody would listen. I don’t think I’ve ever faced three more white washed closed doors in my life. Nobody would listen to me. And with the help of Abby who works with Gender GP, we called on the support of the trans people. We were saying, look, Helen’s not being listened to, can you guys support?
Can you help? And the letters of support came flooding in. I would be like, right. The GMC will definitely listen to the patients because the GMC is all about the patient. Every single letter was ignored. They wrote to my health board, but those letters were ignored. They wrote to the HIW and said, please don’t close her down because where will we go? And it was ignored. It was hideous. You know, I a really strong doer type person. I’m a solution focused person. I’m a, let’s talk about this. Let’s slash it out. Let’s find a solution. I’ll show you the evidence. I’ll show you the hurt versus the, the good that I am doing. And not one person would listen. They also suspended me for 18 months. And I thought, God, 18 months is such a long time. This was May, 2017. And I just thought, that’s such a long time.
However, am I gonna manage, not working for 18 months? And I thought, I’ll, I’ll just write it all down. I’ll write the evidence. I’ll show you. I’ll show them. They won’t listen to me, but they’ll read my letters. So I wrote it. So clearly I showed them how the young person that was supposed to have been harmed wasn’t harmed. And he was doing really well. I showed them the letters. I showed them the harm that was happening on the NHS. I, I, I showed them. I showed them everything and they filed it. They said, thank you. And they just filed it. And I, I just, just have never been so unheard in all my life. And then what’s more is that patients were going to their GP and saying, I found uh I found this thing called Gender GP. And it’s so cool. And it’s run by this person called Dr. Webberley and she’s helping me, can you help? And they were like, no, what we’ll do is we’ll ring the hospital and see. And so when they used to ring the, the gender clinic, um, either the young persons or the adult gender clinic, the doctors there would say no, no, no, no. That doctor Webberley she’s under investigation. No, no, no, no, no. That Dr. Webberley being closed down. No, no, no. She’s operating without a license. No, no, no, no. And worse. You might want to add your doctor. You might want to add your complaints to the GMC if you want to. So the GMC were then receiving more and more complaints, not from patients, not from people who have been helped, but from concerned doctors doing a good thing are patients been to see us. And, and it seems that the doctor’s under investigation. And so maybe you want to do something about, and I’m like, I know I’m an under investigation.
It’s not fair, but, and it just kept continuing. And then the GMC, they, one day they read something in the guardian, there was a, an in article in the guardian about a non-binary person. And it had my name at the bottom. And that’s where I got a letter the next day saying, we’ve added this to your investigation. And I’m like, all right, so, okay. So now you just read something in the new newspapers and you just add it to my investigation. And then there was like, and I’d, I wasn’t allowed to work by this time. But my husband Mike had continued the running the service for us. And then his complaints, he got complaints. Everyone was saying, well, Dr. Webberley, he can’t do it. He can’t be qualified. He can’t be trained to do it. And so they would write to the GMC and say, he’s doing it now.
And then they would add that to my investigation. And my investigation pack was just like filling up like a, I don’t know, it was huge and not one person would listen to me, not one, not one. And that lasted for the whole of 2000 in 18. And by the end of 2018, I had been not just suspended from being a GP, but, um, nationally disqualified. So I can’t be an NHS GP any longer, even after all this is over, I can’t return to being a GP without a big application process. I was completely suspended by the GMC in all of my work. So I couldn’t have no income and not allowed to do my profession. And the HIW healthcare inspector Wales, when at the beginning, they had worked with me to register my service for trans people. They said, okay, you didn’t stop.
Like we told you to, um, you didn’t close down Gender GP and so will convict you. So they took me to court and convicted me of running a service. And again, you know, I had tried to speak to them. I had tried to speak to their medical advisor to explain that if I shut the doors on those patients, people would die. And they were like, no, we’re not. We don’t want you to talk to our medical advisor. We don’t want to listen to you. We don’t want to talk to you. By the end of 2018, I was completely suspended, nationally disqualified. And I had a criminal conviction I had and how I coped actually. I dunno how I coped. I don’t, I don’t, I think it’s a difficult thing for humans to have that much pressure. The so 2018 was a very, very difficult time.
The panel is due to sit for 55 days to sift through all the other things that the GMC kind of found along the way to add the investigation pack, to support their case, that I’m not fit to be a doctor and 55 days it’s due for. And I think it’s gonna be pretty harrowing and pretty hideous, but I’ve got a nice legal team who I feel very confident with. And I remember when I was explaining it to them at the beginning, you know, it can go either way, Marianne, you know that how how’s it gonna go? You know, what’s, you know, this doc just been treating young people and they just understood it. And I, I remember I was in a conference with my council right at the beginning, and I text my husband. He was in another room. I’m like, they understand it, Mike, they get it.
They understand it. And I was, I think I was almost in tears at the thought that actually I’ve got someone who understands it now. Um, I just, just amazing. So I feel very comfort and confident that they will get the right, be able to present the right story on my behalf. And at last, my voice will be heard along with the voices of those people who’ve written in and supported. And along with the voices of the experts on both sides and also the voices of the people who raise concerns. And then the panel will, will independently decide whether what I did was the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do. And I think mostly it sets a very big precedence for the future. Can a doctor like me learn the skills to help trans people? I still resolutely believe that that is the case, but it’s not for me to decide. So there you go, without too many tears of emotion, that’s my story. Um, and it’s been hell, but I’m looking forward to hopefully the end of it. there you go.
And, and as somebody who works in Gender GP, I don’t see anything bad that we could have done. It feels like this is gonna be, you know, detail. It’s gonna be semantics. It’s gonna be, if it’s taken this long to investigate, it can’t be that bad. That’s an observer, you know, obviously you’ll know more than I do, but how much is this? Do you believe is being driven by the prejudice of the organizations involved? So when we talk about the GMC, you know, we saw in 2019, 2020, were they were bragging that they’d had some diversity training and they didn’t realize how difficult it was for trans people. Yet they sit in judgment of a doctor that it is more embedded within trans community than anybody that’s gonna be in that court. I know you spoke about professional, who’s a trans person themselves. I don’t think that qualifies them to know our patients. I don’t claim to know the patients of the GA GICs. So I just wonder how much is this just coming from a very, uh, position that I don’t know they’ve made all these big claims. So now they’ve gotta kind of prove that rather than what’s right for trans people.
And, and part of me just kind of worries that, how can we have a fair trial? You, you know, who, who are they really gonna be listening to? The, the old guard who believed that this is still a mental health issue. Let’s not kid ourselves, you know, baggies had a whole conference on how in the UK, can we make gender dysphoria mental health issue again, because the world health organization have downgraded it and said that gender dysphoria is not mental health, uh, issue, uh, WPATH no longer consider it a mental health issue. Uh, yet the old guard, the people making the complaints about you are desperate to hold onto that gate keeping and, and a self serving. So how can we be certain of a fair trial?
You know, I had run a service and I didn’t, I didn’t close it when they told me to, because I didn’t want people to come to harm. So I ran an unregistered service and that’s against the law. They didn’t help me to try and get registered. And I wonder how much that, that transgender under word influences it. And so I am scared and I’m scared of the tribunal panel. How do I know what they feel? Because everyone’s read about this in the newspapers, everyone will have their own feelings. And how do I, a hundred percent know that they’re not the, the panel that will have feelings about this. And I know professionally that everybody is supposed to put those feeling aside because you’re supposed to look at the facts and not emotions, but I, I am a bit scared about that, but I’ll let you know, , you know, on the 26th of July, I hope so.
And also, how do you prepare for that? How do you say, please, can you give me a fair hearing? Because everyone will say, of course, you’re gonna get a fair hearing. However, I don’t think that the last five years have been particularly fair for me. So, you know, my, my fairness barometer is a little bit low at the moment, but then if you say that people just think that you’re just, you know, not respecting regulation, not respecting the rules. And I’m like, I do respect the rules, but I just wish that you could show me that you’re acting fairly, cause I don’t think you are, but I dunno. We’ll see,
So where is the teaching that’s gone on from these GICs over the last 10 years when they’ve been in operation, why haven’t they put out training materials that I now am accused of not undertaking, cause they’re not there. So frustrating and you’re completely right. Any doctor who is even thinking about helping their trans patient, I guess gonna look at what happened to me and go no way, just not worth them. And I’ve seen patients come through saying, you know, my GP says that they’d love to help, but they just can’t, they’re just too scared. They don’t want to, their insurance is say, don’t do it. You know, they’re scared for their own regulatory safety. And it’s like, yeah, but who’s scared for the patient’s safety. That’s who we should be scared for. I don’t understand it. And also some people will say that if I had my time again, would I have done this?
If I had listened to Bernard and Terry Reed and said to my husband, listen, Mike, we need to get out of here. This is dangerous territory. If I had that time again, would I? I just think no, because the support I have had the number of people who have said, Helen, you have saved my life. You have saved my child’s life. You, you can never undo that, that that reward has got to be worth the, the pain that I’ve been through the last five years. And there must be other doctors out there. Who would you equally feel that that was important? So I just hope that, that this is now reflected in a, a good outcome so that doctors can feel peaceful and confident about helping their trans patients. That’s what we need.
It’s frightening. So, I mean, every day I think to myself, why am I doing this? Because actually, you know, the, the legal fees for this for me are very expensive, hideously expensive. And I think to myself, why am I doing this is the summer holidays. I’ve got to be with my kids. I, what 55 days of a hideous trial, why am I doing it? What’s the point? Why do I want to do it? And I’m just hoping for that fair outcome, but it might not be, it might be another slam dunk, you know, just no way should a, a doctor like Helen be helping trans youth, which is what this is all about. It could be just another slam for the UK, but whatever I think Gender GP will continue. And I think, you know, the service that I founded is now a global international organization, which has different regulatory impact away from the UK.
And that has allowed it to be more international. It has allowed it to continue with international rules rather than the UK rules and the international guidelines, which are the ones we’ve used all along. Have always been so much more affirmative than the UK guidelines of not that there are any, or the NHS protocol really, which is what we spoke to adhere to in the UK apparently. So I’m very pleased that Gender GP, whatever continue. And I will, whether I continue with Gender GP as an advocate, which is what I’ve been for the last five years, or whether I can come back as a doctor is a little bit by the by I’d love to come back as a doctor, but if not, I will definitely be continuing my advocacy work, my education and my support for better healthcare for trans people. But I just can’t help thinking it would be a better outcome for the UK for all of us. If the panel have a listen to the voices that really matter, you know, the voices of trans people who actually are on the receiving end of healthcare, and listen to what they’ve got to say, that’s who we need to listen to.
Please go ahead and subscribe to future episodes if you haven’t done so already, if you or anyone else who have been affected by any of the things that we’ve talked about in our podcast today, and you’d like to contact us, please visit our website Help Centre and contact us via there. We are very happy to accept ideas for future episodes and future guests. So let us know if there’s specific, you’d like us to cover. You can also visit our website, www.gendergp.com for a multitude of information about transgender health and wellbeing issues. You can follow us on social media ID is @GenderGP and you can sign up to our monthly newsletter. Full details can be found in our show notes on our podcast page.
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Manage episode 298167322 series 2475273
On this special episode of the GenderGP podcast, Helen and Marianne sit down and talk about the upcoming Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service hearing. Helen shares her hopes and fears for what’s to come, talks about her support from the community, and tells her story – in her own words.
If you have been affected by any of the topics discussed in our podcast, and would like to get in touch, please contact us via the Help Centre. You can also contact us on social media where you will find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.
The GenderGP Podcast
Implications of the MPTS Hearing
Hi, everyone on a slightly different podcast today. It’s just Marianne and I, and I have to say for the first time I feel nervous. I feel a bit kind of, uh, I dunno, emotional, I guess, because what we are talking about the last five years and how Gender GP started, how it progressed, and then how it has ended up in a, at the end of July in a, a big 55 day tribunal hearing, which will be hearing, um, whether my medical license, um, can be reinstated. It’s been a long, long journey, but I thought it would be a good idea just to share with you how things have unraveled. And I’ve got my good friend Marianne with me today because she’s been with me from the start and she’s a good sounding board and anyone out there who’s ever had a, a cry on Marianne’s shoulder.
I think, you know, she’s an appropriate person to guide me through the story that I’m about to tell you. So back in 2015, I was a, a GP in a small Valley’s village in Wales as quite a deprived area. And I was one of those doctors who kind of thought that I’d never really met that many trans people before. We certainly didn’t have lots and lots of trans patients in our surgery, if any, at all. So I’d obviously I’d met trans patients in my work doing sexual health, but not in a kind of general practice setting. And one day a patient came to see me. She was about 55 ish, I guess. So we’re in Wales, we’re in the valleys. And she said to me, I want to transition and how do I go about it? And I was like, I dunno, I’ve got no idea.
You know, I’m fairly new to Wales. I don’t know how this is gonna go, but I’ll look it up and I’ll come back to you and come back and see me next week. So I did a bit of research and I realized when she came back to see me next week, um, and told her what I’d found as I told her, what we had to do, basically what I was telling her was she would have to get on a train from this valley village. And there would be one change on the train to get to Cardiff another change from Cardiff to get to London. And she would have to go to London on this train and turn up at the clinic there wearing a dress. She’d have to go wearing something that made her look like a woman. And she would have to then see the consultants there.
And as I was telling her this story, you know, even the first bit, even the first bit getting on the train to the local train station to do the change to card, if was just not in this person’s radar, nevermind presenting female on a train into London where she’d never before. As I kind of relayed the story, my words fell away. And I was like, this is just not gonna happen. Is it? And we, we both shook our heads. And I said, I tell you what, come back next week. I’ll look up how to do it. and next week we’ll have a chat. So she came back next week, by which time I’d looked up, how to do it. And actually what I’d realized was so somebody who wants to undergo medical transition, they’re born with a body that makes the wrong set of hormones for them.
So if you’re a trans female, your body makes the testosterone hormone. And if you’re born with a, a female looking body, your ovaries will make that estrogen hormone. It gives you the changes that everyone recognizes to be female, but actually what trans people who are wanting to medically transition, they want the hormone that matches their identity so that they have the external body features and the internal kind of psychological features that match their gender identity. And these are kind of hormones that I, myself, as a GP and a sexual health health, doctor was really, really used to manipulating whether it’s contraception, um, for younger people, whether it’s, uh, men menopause treatment for older, oh, middle aged, sorry. sorry. All you menopausal people out there. People, these are hormones I’m so used to dealing with. And so basically we said, right. Okay, well, let’s put you on there.
A hormone replacement therapy, that’s more associated with female. I E estrogen. I found loads of stuff on the internet about protocols and shared care agreements and the way that it should be done. And it was easy peasy. And she was delighted. We had a really good relationship and it worked out really well. And then it was at the same time, I was really interested developing the digital technology and medicine. Why was everyone shopping on the internet? Why was everybody banking on the internet? But no one was doing healthcare on the internet and I’d made a little webpage just because I love technology love, stuff like that. Sorry, Marianne. I know that’s not your, not your favorite. And I made a website and, um, I put some information on there, all the things that I had discovered about helping trans people and, and, and where trans people should go for help.
And I put it on there, there, and I always say it was like, I woke up the next morning and there was just a massive deluge of people. Who’d come to my little tiny one page website. And I just thought, goodness gracious me. There is a need here. There is a need for information for people who were wanted knowledge about medical transition. So I researched some more and I wrote some more and I, I looked at more guidelines and I tried to look for training, but there wasn’t any. And then as I was looking, I came across the stories of people who were trying to access healthcare at the moment and my heart. I, I, I, I dunno, I don’t know what I, it was awful. The stories that I was hearing of self harm and suicide and anxiety and depression of prejudice, of discrimination, of poor access to care.
And I, I was, I felt ashamed and embarrassed that my profession was treating a section of society in that way. And I think what really hit me was that, that there were young people being affected by this as well. And I, I, I was just, like I say, staggered astounded, disappointed, shocked. I couldn’t believe it. It was about 2016. So it was the time that the women in the equalities report came out and they pulled no punches. You know, they stated very clearly that the NHS is letting down trans people. And I was like, whoa, you know, that’s quite a statement to be making people don’t criticize. Um, the UK NHS that’s bold. So Gender GP was born. It bought, it, came from a little one page website and it, it developed into I’ll put everything here that I learn everything here that people want to know, and I will answer your questions and I will try and help you.
And before long people were like, okay, that’s really interesting, but hang on a minute, aren’t you a doctor? Um, could you like help me medically? And I was like, well, I guess I can. Why not? You know, I am a doctor. I have the power to assess, to diagnose, to evaluate, to create management plans, to prescribe, to monitor. That’s what doctors do. And I was like, well, why not? You’re a person you need help. You can’t get it. I will help you. That’s what doctors do. Maybe that was naive. But I thought that that was the right thing to do, to help alleviate suffering and to help the trans people that I was hearing from to be able to live their lives better. And then I remember at the end of 2016, the trustee from GIRES trustees from GIRES, Bernard and Terry Reed who have become a great friends, sadly, Terry Reed has recently passed and my thought go to Bernard, but they contacted me and said, Helen, we’d like to meet you.
And I was like, oh, goodness gracious to me. I felt a bit scared. Actually. I was like, you know, this is a big charity, um, running for a very long time and they wanted to meet me. So anyway, my husband and I, Mike went to London and we had tea, um, in a hotel with Terry and Bernard, they told, told me ever such a lot. They told me a lot about the way that GIRES had been set up out of a similar kind of thing. Um, their daughter had faced discrimination in the workplace. And so the need was there for education, for law, for policy, and that’s how GIRES was created. And then they told me as well of, of the difficulties that some other doctors had faced when they had tried to help trans people. They told me about two doctors. One was called Richard Curtis, and one was called Russell Reed.
And how the doctors on the NHS had put in complaints about them to the GMC, which is the, the body that regulates doctors and tried to have them stopped working. And they said, Helen, you need to be careful because the same doctors will do the same to you. And I said, Bernard, Terry, don’t worry. I said, I’m safe. I’m not doing anything wrong. I am helping people. That is what doctors do you help people, but that’s what we pledge to do. And they said, but just be careful. And I said, Bernard and Terry, I’m always careful, but thank you for your advice. And we got the train home. And I remember so clearly that we got home and on my step was that envelope that every doctor, dreads, it’s the most awful feeling in the world because you can see that it’s from the GMC and you can see that it’s not a normal envelope.
It’s not the, your direct debit’s failed. And you haven’t paid your, your fees envelope. Uh, it’s not the newsletter envelope. It’s a big pack envelope. And I knew what it was that feeling of fear of terror was enormous. So I opened it up and there was several complaints in there. There was two complaints from Dr. Loma, one of the consultants who works at the London gender clinic as chairing cross as it was then. And he also has a private practice. And there was a complaint from, uh, I don’t know, colleague, friend of his, I don’t know, associate, he’s actually a trans guy who runs a trans charity. Um Alec Rook and they had, had taken it upon themselves to write separately to the GMC, um, about me raising concerns. So they didn’t come to me. I mean, I couldn’t have been more accessible in the trans world.
My website, the email address was at that time was doctor@gendergp.co.UK, which was the site at the time. There’s no point emailing that, by the way, it doesn’t work anymore. I couldn’t have been more accessible. And I’m think thinking to myself, why wouldn’t these colleagues of mine who work in the same field that I’m working? Why wouldn’t they contact me first? Why would they simply just write to my regulatory body and say that we have concerns? And those concerns were so, I don’t know. So nebulous just, you know, she seems to be doing this and she seems to be doing that. And I’m not sure whether she’s qualified and we are sure whether it’s safe or not. And she seems to be casting her net widely. And she seems to be, you know, shouting her words loudly. Um, and it’s like, well, I don’t really see what the problem with that is.
And actually luckily nor did the GMC, they didn’t take very much action on those. They investigated the Alec Rook one for a little while and then came to the, a conclusion that nothing was wrong. But what happened as a result of it was that every time you get an under investigation by the GMC, the GMC tell everybody else. And so they told my employers at the time, my NHS GP employers, and it’s always a bit, there’s no smoke without fire. You know, why would the GMC get involved with the doctor if there wasn’t something wrong? And so, you know, it started a kind of radar on Helen Webberley, which I then learned later was gonna cause me quite a lot of difficulty. The next step was that because the radar had been opened, the CQC is, is an organization who regulates services in England.
And the healthcare inspector Wales is a body that regulates services in Wales. And my employers had written to both of those saying, I can see that Helen’s got a website. Is she registered? And so I didn’t actually know at the time I had to be registered bit naive of me. I know. And so they both wrote me and said, hang on a minute. If you’re doing that, you need to be registered. And I was like, oh God, sorry. Yeah, no problem. I will do it straight away. It turns out that because I’m not in England, I didn’t need to be with CQC, but HIW was like, no problem. And they were like, no problem. And so there was discussion back and forth, like, should I register my website or my company or me, or there’s quite a lot of discussions. A couple of applications went in as, as that registration process was happening.
Professor Butler from GIZ wrote again, decided that he would add his concerns to the mix. Without speaking to me, he wrote to the GMC and said, we’ve got a doctor here who’s helping children. And he made a specific complaint about one of the young people that I was treating, or that I had treated. And the issues that he said were very serious. He implied that I had seriously harmed this young person, actually, that didn’t turn out to be true, but that’s not for me to evaluate. So, you know, when the GMC received yet another complaint of the same vein from another eminent person within the NHS, of course, there are alarm bells have got to ring again. So I had the same pack through the door, which I was getting a bit used to by now. And this time it looks serious. A young person might have been harmed.
And then at the same time, my LHB, which is my NHS employee, is because they heard, I was under investigation. Again, they themselves wrote to the GMC and said, we are worried about this doctor because she’s under investigation. And so the GMC added that to the pack. And I’m like, well, hang on a minute. That’s not very fair because you put me under investigation and then you tell my health board, and then they write to you and say, we are very worried about this doctor because she’s under investigation. I like, okay, nevermind. So, and at the same time, they, they both wrote to the healthcare inspector Wales who at that time had been very willing to register me. And then the healthcare inspector Wales said, okay, well, hang on a minute. She’s under investigation. My health board suspended me and said, you’re not gonna work as a GP anymore while, while all this is going on.
And so the healthcare inspector Wales said, well, well, we’re not registering you then. And, and they canceled my registration. And then they wrote to the GMC and said, she’s operating without a license. And I’m like, whoa, can this get any worse? And it was like this vortex of three big bodies talking about me, all kind of getting completely and utterly in a whirlwind. And I was just a tiny, the spec of dust in the middle of this vortex caught up in it. It was just horrendous. So in the same month, I was invited to a, a, a panel in front of the GMC who stopped me from working with trans people. Well, actually, that’s not quite true. They said I could work with trans people if I had a supervisor, but my supervisor had to be approved by the doctor who had just suspended me from being a GP.
And that doctor just kept saying, no, I’m not approving it. So basically I couldn’t work with trans people. I couldn’t work as a GP. And then the HIW wouldn’t register my service and said, your service has to close. And I was like, I can’t close. I’ve got a thousand people. I’m looking after I can’t, what am I gonna do with them all? And they just said, oh, the NHS will look after them. And I’m like, you’re missing the point because the point is that the NHS isn’t looking after these people, but nobody would listen. I don’t think I’ve ever faced three more white washed closed doors in my life. Nobody would listen to me. And with the help of Abby who works with Gender GP, we called on the support of the trans people. We were saying, look, Helen’s not being listened to, can you guys support?
Can you help? And the letters of support came flooding in. I would be like, right. The GMC will definitely listen to the patients because the GMC is all about the patient. Every single letter was ignored. They wrote to my health board, but those letters were ignored. They wrote to the HIW and said, please don’t close her down because where will we go? And it was ignored. It was hideous. You know, I a really strong doer type person. I’m a solution focused person. I’m a, let’s talk about this. Let’s slash it out. Let’s find a solution. I’ll show you the evidence. I’ll show you the hurt versus the, the good that I am doing. And not one person would listen. They also suspended me for 18 months. And I thought, God, 18 months is such a long time. This was May, 2017. And I just thought, that’s such a long time.
However, am I gonna manage, not working for 18 months? And I thought, I’ll, I’ll just write it all down. I’ll write the evidence. I’ll show you. I’ll show them. They won’t listen to me, but they’ll read my letters. So I wrote it. So clearly I showed them how the young person that was supposed to have been harmed wasn’t harmed. And he was doing really well. I showed them the letters. I showed them the harm that was happening on the NHS. I, I, I showed them. I showed them everything and they filed it. They said, thank you. And they just filed it. And I, I just, just have never been so unheard in all my life. And then what’s more is that patients were going to their GP and saying, I found uh I found this thing called Gender GP. And it’s so cool. And it’s run by this person called Dr. Webberley and she’s helping me, can you help? And they were like, no, what we’ll do is we’ll ring the hospital and see. And so when they used to ring the, the gender clinic, um, either the young persons or the adult gender clinic, the doctors there would say no, no, no, no. That doctor Webberley she’s under investigation. No, no, no, no, no. That Dr. Webberley being closed down. No, no, no. She’s operating without a license. No, no, no, no. And worse. You might want to add your doctor. You might want to add your complaints to the GMC if you want to. So the GMC were then receiving more and more complaints, not from patients, not from people who have been helped, but from concerned doctors doing a good thing are patients been to see us. And, and it seems that the doctor’s under investigation. And so maybe you want to do something about, and I’m like, I know I’m an under investigation.
It’s not fair, but, and it just kept continuing. And then the GMC, they, one day they read something in the guardian, there was a, an in article in the guardian about a non-binary person. And it had my name at the bottom. And that’s where I got a letter the next day saying, we’ve added this to your investigation. And I’m like, all right, so, okay. So now you just read something in the new newspapers and you just add it to my investigation. And then there was like, and I’d, I wasn’t allowed to work by this time. But my husband Mike had continued the running the service for us. And then his complaints, he got complaints. Everyone was saying, well, Dr. Webberley, he can’t do it. He can’t be qualified. He can’t be trained to do it. And so they would write to the GMC and say, he’s doing it now.
And then they would add that to my investigation. And my investigation pack was just like filling up like a, I don’t know, it was huge and not one person would listen to me, not one, not one. And that lasted for the whole of 2000 in 18. And by the end of 2018, I had been not just suspended from being a GP, but, um, nationally disqualified. So I can’t be an NHS GP any longer, even after all this is over, I can’t return to being a GP without a big application process. I was completely suspended by the GMC in all of my work. So I couldn’t have no income and not allowed to do my profession. And the HIW healthcare inspector Wales, when at the beginning, they had worked with me to register my service for trans people. They said, okay, you didn’t stop.
Like we told you to, um, you didn’t close down Gender GP and so will convict you. So they took me to court and convicted me of running a service. And again, you know, I had tried to speak to them. I had tried to speak to their medical advisor to explain that if I shut the doors on those patients, people would die. And they were like, no, we’re not. We don’t want you to talk to our medical advisor. We don’t want to listen to you. We don’t want to talk to you. By the end of 2018, I was completely suspended, nationally disqualified. And I had a criminal conviction I had and how I coped actually. I dunno how I coped. I don’t, I don’t, I think it’s a difficult thing for humans to have that much pressure. The so 2018 was a very, very difficult time.
The panel is due to sit for 55 days to sift through all the other things that the GMC kind of found along the way to add the investigation pack, to support their case, that I’m not fit to be a doctor and 55 days it’s due for. And I think it’s gonna be pretty harrowing and pretty hideous, but I’ve got a nice legal team who I feel very confident with. And I remember when I was explaining it to them at the beginning, you know, it can go either way, Marianne, you know that how how’s it gonna go? You know, what’s, you know, this doc just been treating young people and they just understood it. And I, I remember I was in a conference with my council right at the beginning, and I text my husband. He was in another room. I’m like, they understand it, Mike, they get it.
They understand it. And I was, I think I was almost in tears at the thought that actually I’ve got someone who understands it now. Um, I just, just amazing. So I feel very comfort and confident that they will get the right, be able to present the right story on my behalf. And at last, my voice will be heard along with the voices of those people who’ve written in and supported. And along with the voices of the experts on both sides and also the voices of the people who raise concerns. And then the panel will, will independently decide whether what I did was the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do. And I think mostly it sets a very big precedence for the future. Can a doctor like me learn the skills to help trans people? I still resolutely believe that that is the case, but it’s not for me to decide. So there you go, without too many tears of emotion, that’s my story. Um, and it’s been hell, but I’m looking forward to hopefully the end of it. there you go.
And, and as somebody who works in Gender GP, I don’t see anything bad that we could have done. It feels like this is gonna be, you know, detail. It’s gonna be semantics. It’s gonna be, if it’s taken this long to investigate, it can’t be that bad. That’s an observer, you know, obviously you’ll know more than I do, but how much is this? Do you believe is being driven by the prejudice of the organizations involved? So when we talk about the GMC, you know, we saw in 2019, 2020, were they were bragging that they’d had some diversity training and they didn’t realize how difficult it was for trans people. Yet they sit in judgment of a doctor that it is more embedded within trans community than anybody that’s gonna be in that court. I know you spoke about professional, who’s a trans person themselves. I don’t think that qualifies them to know our patients. I don’t claim to know the patients of the GA GICs. So I just wonder how much is this just coming from a very, uh, position that I don’t know they’ve made all these big claims. So now they’ve gotta kind of prove that rather than what’s right for trans people.
And, and part of me just kind of worries that, how can we have a fair trial? You, you know, who, who are they really gonna be listening to? The, the old guard who believed that this is still a mental health issue. Let’s not kid ourselves, you know, baggies had a whole conference on how in the UK, can we make gender dysphoria mental health issue again, because the world health organization have downgraded it and said that gender dysphoria is not mental health, uh, issue, uh, WPATH no longer consider it a mental health issue. Uh, yet the old guard, the people making the complaints about you are desperate to hold onto that gate keeping and, and a self serving. So how can we be certain of a fair trial?
You know, I had run a service and I didn’t, I didn’t close it when they told me to, because I didn’t want people to come to harm. So I ran an unregistered service and that’s against the law. They didn’t help me to try and get registered. And I wonder how much that, that transgender under word influences it. And so I am scared and I’m scared of the tribunal panel. How do I know what they feel? Because everyone’s read about this in the newspapers, everyone will have their own feelings. And how do I, a hundred percent know that they’re not the, the panel that will have feelings about this. And I know professionally that everybody is supposed to put those feeling aside because you’re supposed to look at the facts and not emotions, but I, I am a bit scared about that, but I’ll let you know, , you know, on the 26th of July, I hope so.
And also, how do you prepare for that? How do you say, please, can you give me a fair hearing? Because everyone will say, of course, you’re gonna get a fair hearing. However, I don’t think that the last five years have been particularly fair for me. So, you know, my, my fairness barometer is a little bit low at the moment, but then if you say that people just think that you’re just, you know, not respecting regulation, not respecting the rules. And I’m like, I do respect the rules, but I just wish that you could show me that you’re acting fairly, cause I don’t think you are, but I dunno. We’ll see,
So where is the teaching that’s gone on from these GICs over the last 10 years when they’ve been in operation, why haven’t they put out training materials that I now am accused of not undertaking, cause they’re not there. So frustrating and you’re completely right. Any doctor who is even thinking about helping their trans patient, I guess gonna look at what happened to me and go no way, just not worth them. And I’ve seen patients come through saying, you know, my GP says that they’d love to help, but they just can’t, they’re just too scared. They don’t want to, their insurance is say, don’t do it. You know, they’re scared for their own regulatory safety. And it’s like, yeah, but who’s scared for the patient’s safety. That’s who we should be scared for. I don’t understand it. And also some people will say that if I had my time again, would I have done this?
If I had listened to Bernard and Terry Reed and said to my husband, listen, Mike, we need to get out of here. This is dangerous territory. If I had that time again, would I? I just think no, because the support I have had the number of people who have said, Helen, you have saved my life. You have saved my child’s life. You, you can never undo that, that that reward has got to be worth the, the pain that I’ve been through the last five years. And there must be other doctors out there. Who would you equally feel that that was important? So I just hope that, that this is now reflected in a, a good outcome so that doctors can feel peaceful and confident about helping their trans patients. That’s what we need.
It’s frightening. So, I mean, every day I think to myself, why am I doing this? Because actually, you know, the, the legal fees for this for me are very expensive, hideously expensive. And I think to myself, why am I doing this is the summer holidays. I’ve got to be with my kids. I, what 55 days of a hideous trial, why am I doing it? What’s the point? Why do I want to do it? And I’m just hoping for that fair outcome, but it might not be, it might be another slam dunk, you know, just no way should a, a doctor like Helen be helping trans youth, which is what this is all about. It could be just another slam for the UK, but whatever I think Gender GP will continue. And I think, you know, the service that I founded is now a global international organization, which has different regulatory impact away from the UK.
And that has allowed it to be more international. It has allowed it to continue with international rules rather than the UK rules and the international guidelines, which are the ones we’ve used all along. Have always been so much more affirmative than the UK guidelines of not that there are any, or the NHS protocol really, which is what we spoke to adhere to in the UK apparently. So I’m very pleased that Gender GP, whatever continue. And I will, whether I continue with Gender GP as an advocate, which is what I’ve been for the last five years, or whether I can come back as a doctor is a little bit by the by I’d love to come back as a doctor, but if not, I will definitely be continuing my advocacy work, my education and my support for better healthcare for trans people. But I just can’t help thinking it would be a better outcome for the UK for all of us. If the panel have a listen to the voices that really matter, you know, the voices of trans people who actually are on the receiving end of healthcare, and listen to what they’ve got to say, that’s who we need to listen to.
Please go ahead and subscribe to future episodes if you haven’t done so already, if you or anyone else who have been affected by any of the things that we’ve talked about in our podcast today, and you’d like to contact us, please visit our website Help Centre and contact us via there. We are very happy to accept ideas for future episodes and future guests. So let us know if there’s specific, you’d like us to cover. You can also visit our website, www.gendergp.com for a multitude of information about transgender health and wellbeing issues. You can follow us on social media ID is @GenderGP and you can sign up to our monthly newsletter. Full details can be found in our show notes on our podcast page.
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