A petition against bureaucratic stupidity (or some of it, anyway)

[fearmeforiampink]

Was planning to post this a little while ago, but got distracted. There is, however, still lots of time to be able to make your voice be heard on, and given the sheer depths of stupidity behind this policy, I think it's very much worth doing so.

Because I think she explains it very well, here is oxfordgirl's description of the situation:

A dear friend of mine is currently being refused medical treatment on the NHS for a debilitating condition which seriously threatens her health, in one of the most vicious, idiotic and arbitrary Catch-22 policies I have ever had the horror to encounter in my frequent skirmishes with British bureacracy.

She has created a petition to attempt to get the government to recognise the inhumane treatment to which she is being subjected, and to compel the Primary Care Trust in question to bring its policies in line with the rest of this (apparently 'civilised') country.

Please consider signing the petition here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/gdoxpct/; I would consider it a great personal favour.

Please also propagate this link. A minimum of 200 signatures are necessary for the petition to be considered.

ETA: A clarification of the Catch-22 in question, from sebastienne

"To further explain the Catch-22:

Gender reassignment, in the UK, is mediated through specialist clinics. For the south of England, the specialist clinc is at Charing Cross Hospital in London. In order for Charing Cross to put you forward for surgery, you have to demonstrate that you are functioning day-to-day, living in your target gender.

In order to get funding out of Oxfordshire PCT, you have to demonstrate "extreme need" - and pretty much the only way to do this is to be so depressed as to be at risk of suicide. A state of mental health which then makes you ineligible for treatment by Charing Cross.

Oxfordshire PCT will only fund your gender reassignment when your condition, through non-treatment, has made you too ill to undergo surgery."

And a link to the full report referenced in the petition explanation, which gives some history as well as details of exactly what Oxfordshire PCT are doing wrong, and how they're doing it: PDF Article by Outen et al.

Comments

dunnit.

[ladybirdintheuk.livejournal.com]

That is ridiculous.

Re: dunnit.

[darkana9.livejournal.com]

i heartily support this statement, either they need

1) a Kick up the ass
2) a good old thrashing
3) to change their line to a compatible one
4) All of the above

if they are just being crap then they really are on my list of on the day i go batshit homicidal who's up for a visit

if they are trying to block people being happy because they dont want to pay for it but dont want to admit thats what they are doing then that dark day might be closer