Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs The assessment also highlighted a lack of documentation around steps taken in Cairns to prove patient competence, under the Gillick principle, and noted that the overarching Queensland Children’s Gender Service did not require parental consent for all patients.Loading“At QCGS the consent process with estranged parents is determined on a case-by-case basis,” the assessment noted.“If [a] parent is estranged and the young person doesn’t want them involved, e.g. in cases of domestic violence, and they are Gillick competent, [the QCGS] will only get one or no signatures.“Where puberty suppression is to be commenced and patients are too young for Gillick competence, then both parental signatures are required.”Some details in the assessment, including patient ages, were redacted on patient privacy grounds. However, all 17 were put under the care of a Multi Disciplinary Team (MDT), with continued oversight from the QCGS, while the service sought to improve its procedures.LoadingOutside that patient group, the assessment warned that, in Cairns alone, if services were discontinued, there were limited private options and “potential for less regulated environment with limited specialist expertise and MDT, and therefore may be more risk for children”.Nicholls’ office has declined to say whether a risk assessment was completed before new paediatric patients lost the option of hormone therapy in the public sector throughout Queensland. More than 400 were on the QCGS waiting list at the time of the announcement, and the LNP government had already halted a planned expansion of the service.Questions sent to Nicholls’ office were referred to the department, which said the preliminary review was “consistent with the complaints made by clinicians and families, which is why a clinical review and separate health service investigation have been commissioned”.The clinical review is due to report by April 30, and the investigation by June 30.Asked in a question on notice from the Labor opposition how the review of the evidence base would differ from a previous independent evaluation of the QCGS, Nicholls last week told parliament “Queensland has not yet undertaken its own review of the evidence for Stage 1 and Stage 2 hormone therapy”.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
