NHS closed Tavistock over trans care concerns. But there were just eight such complaints over the decade preceding its closure, representing 0.06% of service recipients during that time

# Context

The Tavistock Clinic closed in 2022 amid a media frenzy that there were [“at least a thousand families”](https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/tavistock-gender-clinic-to-be-sued-by-1-000-families-lbsw6k8zd) planning mass legal action against it for acting as a [“transing factory.”](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11342541/Dr-Az-Hakeem-says-parents-claimed-kids-trans-NHS-Tavistock-transing-factory-clinic.html)

Detransition is [extremely uncommon](https://medium.com/@lexi.m.henny/how-common-is-detransition-a-review-of-all-the-evidence-95518e6affe1), with most reputable studies concluding a rate of a few percent.

A [report](https://goodlawproject.org/new-data-shows-surge-in-trans-kids-suicides-following-healthcare-rollbacks/) from Good Law Project published this week revealed that 46 trans children died by suicide between 2019 and 2025, with 22 dying in 2021-22, the year of Tavistock’s closure.

# Summary

A recent freedom of information (FOI) request to Tavistock [revealed](https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/health/the-real-tavistock-clinic-scandal-1000-court-cases-that-never-materialised/) that there were only 142 complaints to the clinic in the decade preceding its closure and only eight of them pertained to the specifics of its provision of trans healthcare.

# Discussion points

* To what extent are moral panics about the accessibility of trans healthcare driven by media frenzies?

* How have the facts of trans healthcare become so divorced from popular discourse?

* To what extent is popular discomfort with the accessibility of trans healthcare, to whatever degree it may exist, a bottom-up phenomenon and to what extent is it top-down, being driven by reactionary-centrist controlled media instititutions?

* How can liberals promote a freer and more scientifically grounded approach to trans healthcare in a hostile media landscape?

!ping uk&health-policy&lgbt