Letters | Timely medical care is a human right, trans or not

Readers discuss how to deliver prompt medical care to transgender people, the reclassification of a cancer drug, and climate panic

Reading Time:3 minutes

Transgender people in Hong Kong face long waits for specialised medical care in the public system. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 11:30am, 30 Dec 2023

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification.

I refer to the article, “Hong Kong’s transgender teens struggle with confusion and pain as specialised healthcare is for over-18s only” (June 25).

I have become one of the patients of the Gender Identity Clinic (GIC). Unfortunately, the hurdles are far from over after a referral.

Recently, Quarks, the transgender group, touched base with the Hospital Authority, which runs the GIC at Prince of Wales Hospital. The digest of this discussion is online. What stood out to me is the 47-week wait for psychiatry, and the 77-week wait for endocrinology. To me, that’s utterly unacceptable.

On a personal note, I was referred to the GIC in late September of 2022. I then saw my psychiatrist at the first appointment in mid-October, a 54-week wait. A clinical psychology appointment followed a few weeks later, but endocrinology is a long way off: late July of 2025, which would be a staggering 147 weeks (about three years) since my first referral.

Many transgender people I know face similar hurdles in access to affordable healthcare. While those more financially capable can go to doctors in private practice, those with fewer financial resources or without their families’ blessing might resort to the grey or black market, an inconceivable reality in a highly developed society like Hong Kong.