The Government of the Canary Islands will have to pay the affected person a little more than 20.000 euros, which is what the operation cost in a private clinic.
El Canarian Health Service (SCS) has been convicted by Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) for refusing to cover the operation of phalloplasty (creation of a penis through surgery) to a trans man. He SCS will have to pay the plaintiff $20.737,10 for the intervention that was carried out in a private clinic outside of Canary Islands in August 2018, after the public body refuse treatment.
This has been confirmed by the ruling of the Social Room of the TSJC, which was made public this Tuesday, and which rejects the appeals presented by both the SCS as well as for the affected person, who is now legally a man. The resolution ratifies the ruling of the Social Court number 1 of Arrecife (Lanzarote), which was issued on April 29, 2022, and which partially upheld the transgender man's claim.
Compensate the patient
The initial court recognized the plaintiff's right to be reimbursed for the cost of the phalloplasty, but did not support his request to be compensated for the mastectomy (removal of the breasts) that was also performed in a private center, and for which he claimed 7.445 euros to the public health system.
In the case of the mastectomy, both the court of first instance and the Chamber considered that the SCS He advised against the operation because the patient had been on hormonal treatment for less than a year. Despite this, he decided to have the surgery at a private center.
The patient suffered suicidal thoughts due to the denial of his operation
El TSJC reviewed the medical history of the plaintiff, who had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria by SCS doctors since 2017. The ruling concluded that there was a “unjustified denial of treatment”. The court stressed that the patient's decision to go to a private clinic for phalloplasty was not arbitrary, but rather a response to the inability of the public health system to offer him the necessary procedure.
Furthermore, the ruling underlined the medical and psychological importance of the case, indicating that the delay in treatment caused increasing anxiety in the patient, who even expressed suicidal thoughts due to the lack of effective options in the SCS.
El TSJC He also recalled that transgender people can suffer social, health and legal discrimination, and affirmed that the right to personal development and sex change is a positive obligation of the State and public health systems, which must facilitate and finance it.
The sentence, the court concludes, is susceptible to appeal for the unification of doctrine.
