Child psychiatrist Dr Jillian Spencer claims Qld gender clinic review biased

A psychiatrist has slammed a review into Queensland’s gender clinic service as biased, saying it was not independently conducted due to the participation of clinic employees.

A senior child psychiatrist has slammed a review into Queensland’s gender clinic service as biased, saying it was not independently conducted due to the participation of clinic employees.

Dr Jillian Spencer was stood down from the Queensland Children's Hospital last year after she publicly criticised the gender clinic’s affirmation treatment approach - including the use of puberty blockers, breast binding and use of preferred pronouns by clinic staff – arguing there was not enough medical evidence to discount negative long-term impacts on gender diverse children.

Dr Spencer also claimed children and their families were being pressured into affirmation treatment care, with children not provided adequate mental health assessments prior to commencing treatment.

A review was held into the Queensland Children’s Gender Service which found no evidence of children or families being hurried into making decisions about medical interventions and determined clinical practice within the service was consistent with current national and international guidelines.

But Dr Spencer says the review panel was “stacked” with “hard-line gender clinician activists” who had established links to the gender clinic, accusing the government of holding an bias, internal review.

Jillian Spencer is a psychiatrist at the Queensland Children's Hospital who has challenged gender affirming care for gender questioning young people.

“The panel predominantly consulted with gender affirming clinicians and organisations with established links to the gender clinic,” she said.

“The chair of the panel was a Queensland Health employee and so the report was not an independent report as claimed.”

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli also label the review as “internal” and said Health Minister Shannon Fentiman had taken a “vastly different approach” to investigating the effects of puberty blockers compared to other parts of the world.

“The way that the Queensland Health Minister has run this debate, runs at odds with everywhere else in the world at the moment, including the Labour government in Britain,” he said.

The English National Health Service in March banned puberty blockers, with renowned pediatrician Dr Hilary Cass also declaring there was no clear evidence supporting gender affirmation treatment in her own independent review in April.

The Cass review recommended puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone treatments should be subject to extreme approval process and only prescribed to children under age 18 with extreme caution. Dr Spencer said Queensland’s review had oppositely recommended “extraordinary measures” that will see gender clinics expanded instead of evaluated.

“The QCGS Evaluation Report noted the existence of the Cass Review Final Report in passing but disregarded its findings,” she said.

“Government and medical bodies are pretending that these guidelines are reputable despite the Cass review finding them to be completely inadequate in their rigour of development.”

Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli during a news conference at Parliament House, Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

LNP members voted to ban puberty blockers at a nationwide party convention in Brisbane on the first weekend of July.

But Mr Crisafulli said he would first want to see scientific evidence before considering any type of ban, should the LNP be elected in October.

“We would respectfully ask for the science that the rest of the world is looking at to be brought to Queensland,” he said.

“Then we can answer that in a far more definitive and respectful way than what’s happening at the moment.”

Ms Fentiman vehemently denied any bias with the QCGS review panel and said Mr Crisafulli’s comments showed he would not put healthcare back in the hands of professionals as claimed if he is elected in October.

“To question the independence of this review is completely false and misleading – it was undertaken by some of the most experienced clinicians in the country,“ she said.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman denied the bias. Picture: Liam Kidston

“The research shows having access to puberty blockers can quite literally save lives, so it’s so important that these decisions are made by clinical experts.

“David Crisafulli says he wants to put doctors and nurses back in charge, but when doctors make decisions that the branch members of the LNP disagree with, he backflips.”

Five hundred young people are currently being treated at the Queensland gender clinic, one third of those receiving puberty blocker prescriptions.

There is a 12-month waitlist for the gender service.