Australian psychiatrist Jillian Spencer, who went public with concerns about paediatric medical transition, has been sent a termination notice by her hospital, while a complaint against the country’s most influential gender clinician, Michelle Telfer, has been dismissed.
Dr Spencer, suspended from clinical duties in 2023 after raising concerns about patient safety, has been given notice of termination, the Courier Mail newspaper reports.
The 14-day notice of dismissal comes two and a half months before the reporting deadline for an independent review of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in her home state of Queensland.
“Why haven’t they waited for that [report]?” Dr Spencer asked.
A leading advocate for an inquiry into the gender medicalisation of minors, Dr Spencer was a senior clinician with an unblemished record at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, which is home to a large gender clinic.1 She said her attempts to raise concerns internally had come to nothing.
“The 59-page termination letter lists occasions where she allegedly broke the code of conduct by speaking on Sky News and at public meetings,” the Courier Mail reported on September 12.
Meanwhile, a complaint against the clinician who pioneered the contentious gender-affirming treatment approach in Australia has been dismissed.
Dr Michelle Telfer, chief of medicine at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Melbourne, was found to be ‘‘meeting accepted standards of practice’’ by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
Dr Telfer, the former director of RCH Melbourne’s influential gender clinic, was first author of the 2018 RCH treatment guidelines which spread the gender-affirming approach nationally.
On September 12, AHPRA told the complainant, Burchell Wilson, it would take no further action.
Source: Unequal verdicts – by Bernard Lane – Gender Clinic News