The UK's best known gender psychiatrist gave patients sex-change treatments without evidence they were genuinely transsexual, an inquiry heard today.
The General Medical Council disciplinary hearing into consultant psychiatrist Dr Russell Reid was told that he repeatedly put patients at risk by breaching internationally accepted standards of care.
Dr Brian Ferguson, a senior gender psychiatrist based in Nottingham, told the hearing that Dr Reid rushed patients into treatment without a thorough assessment and, in some cases, a second opinion.
Dr Ferguson said Dr Reid had acted in a "wholly inappropriate" fashion by prescribing hormones to patients on their first appointment and referring them for surgery without proof that they were transsexuals.
Dr Reid, who ran a private gender clinic in west London until his retirement earlier this year, is accused of serious professional misconduct in relation to his treatment of five former patients. He is also accused of breaching international guidelines on the treatment of gender identity disorders and inappropriate treatment of the patients, identified as B, C, D, E and F.
Dr Ferguson said Dr Reid should have exercised great caution in the treatment of patients B and C, who both now regret changing sex, and patient D, because there were clear indications that they suffered from either a serious mental illness or a personality disorder.
The psychiatrist told the disciplinary panel that gender reassignment surgery has been found to be unsuccessful in people with a borderline personality disorder, which both patients B and C have been diagnosed with. He said people with this diagnosis often misunderstood their own emotions, which should be taken into account when they consider a sex change.
The psychiatrist also criticised Dr Reid for continuing to treat patient C, a convicted paedophile, after it emerged he had concealed his conviction for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
Dr Ferguson said the revelation cast grave doubt on Dr Reid's diagnosis of transsexualism, and the patient's admission that he lied should have prompted full checks of his story.
With regards to patient D, the only female-to-male transsexual in the case, Dr Ferguson said Dr Reid should have recognised she was suffering from manic depression. For example, her desire to change sex occurred suddenly after watching a TV programme about transsexualism.
The inquiry had heard that Dr Reid prescribed hormones to patient D and referred her for surgery against the advice of a second psychiatrist. She only avoided having both breasts removed because she was sectioned just prior to the operation.
Dr Reid's treatment of the five patients had strayed wide of the guidelines set down by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Dr Ferguson told the panel. Dr Reid denies the charge of serious professional misconduct. He also denies treating the five patients inappropriately and acting contrary to the international guidelines on the treatment of transsexualism.
The hearing continues.
