Healthcare
For many of us, the UK healthcare system might be the most bewildering thing. In brief, as an enrolled student you will be entitled to the NHS like any other British citizen. For those of us here on visas, generally-speaking, access to the NHS is tied to our visa status i.e. we paid a surcharge in our visa application, so we get the NHS; if our visa expires, we’ll lose access to it.
Transitioning
Transitioning (medically) in a new country can be really difficult – in addition to the hurdles faced as an international student, you’ll encounter other healthcare-related challenges.
Student Administration
For various reasons, you may need to change your name or gender, in addition to impressing on others the importance of confidentiality. Oxford is difficult because of its fragmented structure, which may mean that you need to contact multiple bodies (e.g. your college, department/faculty, OUSU) for one issue.
Sexual Health
Last updated March 2019.
Disclaimer: reliance on any of this information is solely at your discretion; please check with relevant professionals and authorities first. These opinions were made to the best knowledge of the authors who are themselves students and should not be held liable if any error was made in good faith.
Oxford terms may be short, but we're here all year round.
Welfare
Some of the services listed here may be helpful to you. In particular, you may be interested in Nightline or in Seven Cups.
The emails of the committee are always open. You can contact one or both of the officers on [email protected] or [email protected]
There is also a LGBTQ+ international students facebook group. You can join by contacting the officers, either by emailing them, or friending them on facebook.
For many of us, the UK healthcare system might be the most bewildering thing. In brief, as an enrolled student you will be entitled to the NHS like any other British citizen. For those of us here on visas, generally-speaking, access to the NHS is tied to our visa status i.e. we paid a surcharge in our visa application, so we get the NHS; if our visa expires, we’ll lose access to it.
- When you first come to the UK to start University, you will be assigned by your college to a “surgery” (i.e. a clinic). The primary healthcare professional in your surgery is called a “General Practitioner” (GP); this person can diagnose common medical problems (e.g. flus) and do simple prescriptions, but is also your primary point of contact for referrals to more specialist services (e.g. physiotherapy, MRI scans, gender identity clinics).
- Please be prepared for many long waiting times and delays in your NHS experience. To book an appointment with your surgery, you might have to wait a few weeks. For more specialist referrals, you may have to wait 6-24 months for your first appointment.
- You may also realise that the healthcare system is more fragmented and less coordinated than you might expect; a GP’s referral to XYZ clinic may be lost and it will be your responsibility to continuously check in with both of them to ensure that your case is progressing.
- In addition to this network of NHS clinics and hospitals, there are private clinics. Like other British citizens, these are accessible to you if you can afford them. They do tend to be far pricier albeit much faster in terms of waiting times. You may or may not enjoy the benefit of subsidies/reimbursements by your insurance company; please check with your insurance provider what can be covered by them.
Transitioning
Transitioning (medically) in a new country can be really difficult – in addition to the hurdles faced as an international student, you’ll encounter other healthcare-related challenges.
- Even if it was already difficult in your home country, please be prepared for the possibility that it is not necessarily easier to do so in the UK. Curveballs include lost referrals, doubling of waiting times, price hikes. Rest assured, there’s a good number of us who are doing it and you can always reach out in the secret group “OTF”. Email the LGBTQ Society’s Trans Reps to be added to it.
- Note: As of 2017, in this international rep’s experience, you can’t register with your GP and start the referral process before physically arriving in Oxford. I tried to do this in order to skip the waiting time and ‘fast-forward’ the transitioning process, but was told that you can only register with your GP if you’re physically here, and only after that can you start the process of waiting for your NHS GIC referral. If this is what you want to do, then be prepared to act fast.
- You can shortcut the process by using private clinics while still being on the NHS waiting list. In the UK, the main private clinic is GenderCare in London. In this international rep’s experience in 2017: I tried to short-cut the process by getting an initial diagnosis in my home country and then use that to jump straight to endocrinologist consultation and prescription in the UK; that doesn’t work. At least for GenderCare, they insist that you use their own psychiatrist and endocrinologist. o Note: waiting times aren’t provided in this guide because they change a lot and are best followed online. Good resources online include:https://actionfortranshealth.org.uk
Student Administration
For various reasons, you may need to change your name or gender, in addition to impressing on others the importance of confidentiality. Oxford is difficult because of its fragmented structure, which may mean that you need to contact multiple bodies (e.g. your college, department/faculty, OUSU) for one issue.
- If you want to change your name socially but not legally due to the latter’s additional complications, you can do so by asking college to change your email address (even if your legal name is the same); you can then use that email to contact your department/faculty about the name and pronouns you’d like to be referred to, and they should be accommodating independent of your legal name change. You can also ask college to inform your tutors beforehand. This was what I did and have been living smoothly as my preferred name since coming here.
- While it may be scaring outing yourself, by and large this international rep’s experience has been pleasant. I have encountered plenty of people who want to help in whatever way they can, e.g., being put in touch with trans-friendly local contacts when I expressed concerns about doing ethnographic fieldwork in a workshop organized by the Social Sciences Division. o Reach out to the LGBTQ Society’s Trans Reps for more detailed advice as to how to change names on key legal documents like your passport and your visa. These documents are very important; if you want to do paid work in the UK over the vacation, for example, you may need a National Insurance number. For that, you’ll have to use the name and sex stated in your passport and visa.
- Remember, you also have your college’s LGBTQ+ Reps and general welfare personnel to turn to; some colleges also have a Gender Expression Fund which provides financial help to buy items that aid in gender expression e.g. binders,
Sexual Health
- Oxfordshire Sexual Health Service (OSHS) and the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) do STI testing.
- There are sexual health clinics at the Churchill Hospital in Headington, at the Rectory Centre in East Oxford and a clinic at Banbury. You can find more information about these services at https://www.sexualhealthoxfordshire.nhs.uk/visiting/.
- OUSU and OSHS run STI tests in college as well – these are on a college-bycollege basis, and if your college runs one your Welfare Reps should let everyone know.
- Most colleges provide various sexual health devices for free, including condoms and dental dams. Contraception is also available from college nurses, the GP, OUSU, OSHS.
Last updated March 2019.
Disclaimer: reliance on any of this information is solely at your discretion; please check with relevant professionals and authorities first. These opinions were made to the best knowledge of the authors who are themselves students and should not be held liable if any error was made in good faith.
Oxford terms may be short, but we're here all year round.
Welfare
Some of the services listed here may be helpful to you. In particular, you may be interested in Nightline or in Seven Cups.
The emails of the committee are always open. You can contact one or both of the officers on [email protected] or [email protected]
There is also a LGBTQ+ international students facebook group. You can join by contacting the officers, either by emailing them, or friending them on facebook.
