We aim to offer a number of different types of appointment including face to face or online. We use an online tool called Attend Anywhere for our virtual appointments. 

Your clinician - typically a doctor for your first appointment - may discuss with you whether an in-person appointment at the clinic is appropriate. 

If you have arranged an appointment on Attend Anywhere you need to click here and wait for your clinician to connect. 

Further down this page, we have information on how to use Attend Anywhere and what to do if you're struggling to connect. 

In preparation for your first appointment with the Porterbrook Gender Identity Clinic, please complete and return the 'My Personal Story' questionnaire.

You can return this form via email or post it back to the clinic. 

You can email the completed form to porterbrook@shsc.nhs.uk or post it to:

Porterbrook Clinic
75 Osborne Road
Michael Carlisle Centre
Sheffield
S11 9BF
United Kingdom

Attend Anywhere is a video consultation platform. 

The purpose of Attend Anywhere is to reduce the need for long journeys to the clinic and reduce the impact on other commitments you may have. Such as if you are a carer, work, or study.

For clinicians to feel the standard of the appointments matches face to face consultations, we need a commitment from you to present and interact in the same way you would if you were travelling to the clinic in person. We will need to rely on this commitment in our clinical assessments and consultations. We will need to have a trusting therapeutic alliance with you. 

What we need from you, to ensure safe and effective use of Attend Anywhere:

• Please dress and present in the same way you would if you had to travel here on public transport or in your car - that is, in your usual clothing that you wear in public.
• Please consider your environment - please sit in a chair in a well-lit private room, where you are able to speak freely and there is minimal outside noise.
• Smoking and any other activity that you would not do when in an NHS clinic should be avoided.
• We do not undertake physical examinations and would never ask you to demonstrate physical changes from hormone treatment or to show post operative surgical outcomes. Any concerns regarding this can be discussed but physical examinations or reviews would need to occur in a GP surgery if needed.
• If you have a history of trauma or suspect you may become distressed please ask your clinician to consider this at the start of the appointment and you can both agree a way for you to flag this up during the consultation. For example, you could raise your hand if speaking has become difficult for you.
• You and/or the clinician can choose to terminate the video call if either of you think this is not an effective means of communication. If this is the case we will aim to agree a mutually acceptable alternative without your place on the waiting list being negatively impacted. However, there may be a delay in organising an appointment in-person.

Please note:

• Clinicians do not agree to being recorded in any medium without their knowledge whilst using Attend Anywhere.
• Should the connection during the video call be unsatisfactory (either within the clinic, with the patient, or because of Attend Anywhere technical issues) to the point that the assessment is unable to be continued to a therapeutically safe level, discussions and decisions will be undertaken regarding how and when the appointment will be repeated.

Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust "zero-tolerance" policy on abuse applies to Attend Anywhere in the same way as an appointment in-person. 

Agreed by Sheffield Gender Identity Clinic, SHSC (16/06/2020)

How to attend your appointment via video - Gender Identity Clinic

Where appropriate, you can attend your consultation online via a video call. Video calling is as convenient as a phone-call with the added value of face-to-face communication. 

It can save you time and money and brings your care closer to home. Instead of travelling to your appointment, you enter the clinic's online waiting area.

The health service is notified when you arrive and your clinician will join you when ready.

There is no need to create an account. No information you enter is stored.

Where do I go to attend my appointment?

Go to the login page for Attend Anywhere, for the gender clinic.  

What do I need to make a video call?

You need:

• A good connection to the internet - if you can watch a video online (e.g YouTube) you can make a video call.
• A private, well-lit area where you will not be disturbed during the consultation.
• Google Chrome web browser on a desktop or laptop, or on an Android tablet or smartphone OR Safari web browser on an Apple iMac, MacBook, iPad or iPhone.
• Web-camera, speakers and microphone already built into laptops or mobile devices.

Is it secure?

Video calls are secure; your privacy is protected. You have your own private video room that only authorised clinicians can enter.

How much internet data will I use?

You don't use any data while waiting for a clinician to join you. A video call uses a similar amount of data to Skype or Facetime.

How much does a video call cost?

The video call is free (expect for your internet usage).  

Get ready to make video calls

Make sure that you use one of the following web browsers:

• Google Chrome - Windows 7+, Android 5.1+, MacOS 10.11+, iPadOS 13+
• Apple Safari - MacOS 10.12+, iOS 11.4+, iPadOS 13+

Go to the login page for Attend Anywhere, for the gender clinic. 

1. On this web page, click the Start video call button and follow instructions.
2. Wait in your own private video room.
3. Your healthcare provider sees you arrive in the waiting area queue...
4. And joins you in your video room when you are ready

Smartphone and tablet users

If you can connect to a home or work Wi-Fi network to avoid using your mobile data allowance.

What do I do if something is not working? 

Please refer to the NHS England troubleshooting information for Attend Anywhere.

These user guidelines are also available to read in PDF format. 

If you have received confirmation that your referral has been accepted we will not remove you from the list.

Please keep us updated of any changes to your personal details such as:

• if you've moved house/have a new address
• if your phone number has changed
• if you've changed to a new GP surgery
• if you've changed your NHS number
• if you've legally changed your name (a copy of your deed poll will need to be sent to us as proof)

You can update us with changes to your contact details either by emailing porterbrook@shsc.nhs.uk or calling on 0114 2716671.