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A doctor who ran an unlicensed online gender identity clinic which offered sex-change treatments to children as young as 12 has appeared at a medical tribunal accused of failing to provide good clinical care to three patients.

Dr Helen Webberley, who founded online clinic GenderGP, with her husband Dr Michael Webberley, is also accused of inappropriately prescribing to two other patients.

The 52-year-old, who is currently barred from practising, appeared today via videolink at a Medical Practitioners Service (MPTS) fitness-to-practise hearing in Manchester.

She faces a total of 29 charges, most of which she denies, relating to the period March 2016 to November 2016 which include a failure to provide good clinical care to three child patients who received hormone treatment.

Dr Webberley is also accused of failing to obtain adequate medical histories and failing to arrange adequate examinations, including physical examinations and psychological assessments. 

Those assessments were needed to confirm a diagnosis of gender dysphoria before prescribing testosterone treatment to two patients - known only as Patient A and B.

Dr Helen Webberley was accused of failing to provide good clinical care to three child patients and inappropriately prescribing to two other patients

She was also charged with failing to follow professional guidelines.

Patient A is said to have been given testosterone when it was 'not appropriate for use' in children of their age while a third patient - Patient C - was prescribed testosterone and GnRHA - or puberty blockers - when Dr Webberley lacked the 'adequate training, qualifications or experience in the field of paediatric endocrinology' and failed to discuss the risks of treatment.

With all three patients, Dr Webberley is accused of failing to adhere to international guidelines set out by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Endocrine Society.

As such, she 'knew or ought to have known' she was acting outside the limits of her competence as a GP with special interest in gender dysphoria.

Pictured: Dr Helen Webberley ran a private transgender clinic from her home until 2018 when she was convicted of running it illegally

Other allegations concern two other patients - Patient D and Patient E - following a CQC inspection of Dr Matt Limited where Dr Webberley was the safeguarding lead.

She's charged with inappropriately prescribing medication and being unaware of and never seeing the safeguarding policy.

Dr Webberley also faces several charges in relation to her former role as director of Gender GP which states on its website that 'all medical advice and prescriptions are provided by doctors working outside the UK'.

Its operation method is allegedly 'motivated by efforts to avoid the regulatory framework of the UK including the CQC (Care Quality Commission), HIW (Health Inspectorate Wales) and the GMC (General Medical Council).'

Dr Webberley admits several charges relating to her conviction in October 2018 for illegally running an unregistered clinic - Online GP Services Ltd - while treating 1,600 transgender patients and gender dysphoric children from her home in Wales.

Mid Wales Magistrates court heard she gave gave hormones to children as young as 12 after the youngsters were denied treatment on the NHS.

A judge said there was a 'clear refusal to follow the law' while regulator Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) said she posed a risk to patient safety.

Dr Webberley was later fined £12,000.

She also admits providing inaccurate information to an interim orders tribunal in May 2017 that she was a member of Royal College of Practitioners (RCGP).

But she denies that she 'repeatedly frustrated' a 2017 review by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board into her online practices.

Dr Webberley and her husband, who was suspended in May 2019, moved online GenderGP to Malaga in Spain in May 2019.

But it's now owned by Hong-Kong based Harland International Ltd and she works only in non-medical advocacy role.

The treatment of young transgender patients, which also includes the use of puberty blockers, has proved controversial.

The Tavistock and Portman NHS trust, which runs NHS England's only gender identity development service for children, is challenging a landmark High Court court ruling last year that children under the age of 16 considering gender reassignment are unlikely to be mature enough to give informed consent to be prescribed puberty-blocking drugs.

 Dr Webberley (pictured at court in 2018) moved Gender GP to Malaga in Spain in May 2019

The case was brought by Keira Bell, a 24-year-old woman who began taking puberty blockers when she was 16 before detransitioning.

As a result of the decision, the Tavistock suspended new referrals for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the under-16s.

But lawyers for the trust told the Court Appeal in June that the ruling meant that children with gender dysphoria were 'treated differently from others in their age group seeking medical treatment'.

A decision on the trust's appeal has yet to be made.

Tavistock began its appeal against the ruling in June and Fenella Morris QC, for the trust, said the decision 'reset almost half a century of established law' and caused 'serious distress to many young people and their families'.  

In written arguments, she said: 'The effect of the court's judgment is to deny trans children and young people access to treatment which they desperately want and need. It is unclear what 'benefit' there is to be gained from this.'

She continued: 'It undermined the entitlement of children under the age of 16 to make decisions for themselves when they have been assessed individually as competent to do so by their treating clinicians. 

'It intruded into the realm of decisions agreed upon by doctors, patients and their parents where the court had not previously gone.'  

Ms Bell's lawyers previously argued there is 'a very high likelihood' that children who start taking hormone blockers will later begin taking cross-sex hormones, which they say cause 'irreversible changes'.

In a separate High Court case in March, a judge ruled that parents of transgender children can consent to treatment with puberty blockers on their child's behalf without a court's approval.