Amsterdam UMC gender clinic (2025)
In January 2025, it became known that the Gender Dysphoria Knowledge and Care Centre at Amsterdam UMC, the largest gender clinic in the Netherlands, would temporarily stop accepting new adult patients. NRC reported on this on 9 January 2025. Members of Parliament Westerveld and Slagt-Tichelman (GroenLinks-PvdA) submitted written questions about it on 28 January 2025.
Minister Agema of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport replied on 7 March 2025. According to her, there is formally no patient intake freeze: referrals to the centre remain possible, but adults on the waiting list are temporarily not being invited for an intake appointment. Children and adolescents are still being invited.
What it says
The minister cites a shortage of psychologists as the cause, putting pressure on the flow of patients through care. The centre is assessing the care needs of everyone on the waiting list; more than half of the adults contacted turned out to have already received some form of care elsewhere. The minister refers to agreements on waiting times in mental healthcare and to a national transgender care platform intended to promote collaboration and the distribution of care.
Background and context
According to the reports on which the parliamentary questions were based, adults had been waiting more than a year for a second appointment at that point, while children and adolescents had been waiting approximately two months. The hospital advised patients to contact their health insurer for help arranging care. The MPs asked nine questions. They wanted to know what the minister was doing about the shortage of psychologists, whether additional funding would be provided, what harm long waiting times were causing, whether people were seeking care abroad, how things stood with the duty of care, and whether the requirement for a psychological diagnosis could be dropped.
Political context
The answers were due by 13 February 2025. The minister requested an extension because the responses had to be coordinated with external parties; the official memo accompanying the answers shows that these were Amsterdam UMC and the Dutch Healthcare Authority. The same memo places the questions within a broader series of developments. In the previous year, the ministry had already answered several sets of parliamentary questions about criticism of the Dutch approach, and Parliament had adopted motions by Diederik van Dijk (SGP) and Hertzberger (NSC) calling for more research and independent advice. The Health Council subsequently received a request for advice; the committee was installed on 5 February 2025. See also the parliamentary letter on gender care for minors and the revision of the quality standard.
Why it is included in this archive
The answers show the extent of the pressure on medical gender care and tie in with other developments in the Netherlands concerning waiting times and capacity. The figures and causes behind the waiting list, including the intake freeze at Amsterdam UMC, are discussed on transtijd.nl in the article about the waiting list in Dutch gender care.