A transgender woman who killed herself after spending 1,023 days on a waiting list would be alive today if the NHS had taken her seriously, an inquest heard.

Alice Litman, 20, had been referred to the NHS Gender Identity Development Service in August 2019.

But she was still waiting for an initial assessment almost three years later and killed herself in May 2022.

Today her family told an inquest the NHS had ‘failed’ the young transgender woman.

They said ‘gatekeepers’ had prevented her from getting the support and gender treatment she desperately needed. 

Alice Litman (pictured) who had waited nearly three years to discuss transitioning before tragically taking her own life

Alice Litman (pictured) who had waited nearly three years to discuss transitioning before tragically taking her own life

Alice with her mother, Caroline. Despite the suicide attempts in June and December 2019 she still struggled to receive the gender care and mental health support she needed, an inquest heard

Alice with her mother, Caroline. Despite the suicide attempts in June and December 2019 she still struggled to receive the gender care and mental health support she needed, an inquest heard

The inquest at Hove Country Cricket Ground heard that feeling ‘hopeless and in despair’ she made two suicide attempts.

But despite the suicide attempts in June and December 2019 she still struggled to receive the gender care and mental health support she needed.

Attending the inquest with Alice’s father, Peter and brother and sister, Harvey and Kate, her mother her mother Dr Caroline Litman, a former NHS psychiatrist, condemned the delays.

In a statement, she said: ‘There were significant and ongoing delays in accessing gender-affirming care. My daughter could have lived a happy and healthy life if she had not been failed by the healthcare systems that were meant to support her.

‘I felt that I was repeatedly unable to get my daughter past the gatekeepers for mental health treatment and gender-affirming care.

‘I felt and continue to feel immense shame and responsibility that, as a mother who used to work as a psychiatrist for the NHS, I struggled to get the help for my child that she so obviously needed.’

In September 2018 Alice told her sister, Kate, that she felt she wanted to live her life as a woman and went for an appointment with another GP where she told the doctor about her gender identity problems

In September 2018 Alice told her sister, Kate, that she felt she wanted to live her life as a woman and went for an appointment with another GP where she told the doctor about her gender identity problems

Pictures show Alice as a child with father, Peter. The family continued to try and find private gender care for Alice but on a visit home in Easter 2022

Pictures show Alice as a child with father, Peter. The family continued to try and find private gender care for Alice but on a visit home in Easter 2022

Alice Litman first came to the attention of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in 2017 when she began suffering from severe anxiety and low moods.

She received group therapy which was helpful but her low moods continued and in early 2018 she went to see a GP in her hometown of Leatherhead, Surrey.

Dr Litman slammed the GP who failed to take her daughter’s requests for help seriously.

She said: ‘We both found the appointment totally unhelpful – he suggested that Alice needed to play more football and told me that he made his daughters go for a walk every day and that I should do the same. No other treatment was offered.

She said: ‘When we left the appointment Alice said to me: ‘Please never make me see that doctor again’.

‘She felt he was not being taken seriously and the doctors did not understand her.’

In September 2018 Alice told her sister, Kate, that she felt she wanted to live her life as a woman and went for an appointment with another GP where she told the doctor about her gender identity problems.

Dr Litman said this doctor suggested a ‘watch and wait’ approach and did not make a referral to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).

She said: ‘In my view, this demonstrated a lack of understanding on the doctor’s part, both in her assumption that transgender people are likely to change their minds about transition and in her failure to consider that the waiting list to access treatment was already years long.’

It wasn’t until after her first suicide attempt in June 2019 that Alice was finally referred for treatment at the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).

In August 2019 GIDS confirmed they had received the referral from CAMHS but warned that: ‘Due to high demand we have found waiting times at GIDS incredibly hard to predict. Currently we are seeing young people for assessment who were referred 24 months ago’.

The inquest heard that in August 2019 Alice began to transition in her life, wearing make-up and changing her name which helped with her low mood.

But this declined again when she realised there was a long waiting list for gender identity treatment.

When she turned 18 in February 2020 the referral was transferred to the adult Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) at the Tavistock Clinic.

Due to the severe delays in referral, her family paid for private counselling to help support her mentally.

They also sought help from GenderGP – a private service aimed at supporting transgender patients – and Alice began taking cross-sex hormone therapy.

However, the hearing was told the outbreak of the Covid pandemic made seeking further treatment or surgery impossible.

Dr Litman said: ‘Lockdown was another barrier to Alice getting appropriate care.’

In September 2021 Alice moved from her family home in Surrey to Brighton where she lived with a close friend.

The family continued to try and find private gender care for Alice but on a visit home in Easter 2022, Dr Litman told Alice that even waiting lists at the private London Transgender Clinic were long because of a rapid rise in referrals due to the increasing NHS backlogs with the GIC.

During the same visit, Alice confessed to her mother she was having thoughts of suicide.

Dr Litman said: ‘I shared these thoughts with Peter and with medical professionals when I could, but I felt like I was the only one who really thought she might do something, and I felt despair at my inability to get other people to understand and support her professionally.’

Alice was found suffering from multiple injuries on the Undercliff Walk, near Roedean School in Brighton in the early hours of May 26.

The inquest, which is expected to last three days, continues.

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