Why are doctors and nurses leaving gender care?

Many are working in fear. They are delivering good care within proper frameworks, but they worry that a complaint could cost them their registration. The regulators have not given them clear enough protection or guidance, so talented people are walking away. Does that match what you have heard happening?

What is Helen asking the GMC and NMC to actually do?

She is asking them to publish clear, current guidance on what good gender care looks like, and to publicly back clinicians who work within it. Right now, the silence from regulators is driving people out of the field. Do you work in this area, or know someone who does?

Dear regulator: your professionals need you

Substack 12 February 2026

Regulators must support healthcare professionals in gender care

Healthcare professionals working in gender medicine are being left to fend for themselves. The GMC, NMC, and HCPC have the power to change that, and it is time they used it. Without clear guidance and genuine protection for clinicians, talented professionals will keep leaving the field, services will keep shrinking, and the people who need care will keep being turned away.

Healthcare professionals working in gender medicine are caught between competing pressures, often without adequate support from their regulatory bodies. The GMC, NMC, and HCPC have a responsibility to clarify what good practice looks like and to stand behind professionals who deliver evidence-based, patient-centred care.

Without this clarity and support, talented clinicians are leaving the field, services are contracting, and patients are left with fewer options. The regulators have the power to change this by issuing clear, contemporary guidance and by protecting professionals from the fear of investigation simply for working within established clinical frameworks.

Read the full open letter to discover what Helen is asking the regulators to do, and why the profession needs them now more than ever.

In response to: Dear Regulator, your professionals need you (Substack)