Ian K. Maconochie vs. transgender people

Ian Maconochie is a pediatrician and anti-transgender activist.

In 2024, Maconochie co-signed an open letter by Louise Irvine of anti-trans hate group Genspect criticizing the British Medical Association (BMA), which called for a public critique of the Cass Review. Maconochie also co-authored a 2024 paper defending the Cass Review with Zhenya Abbruzzese of anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.

Background

Ian Kristen Maconochie earned a medical degree from the University of London in 1985. Maconochie was entered on the GMC specialist register for pediatrics in February 1998. Maconochie later earned a doctorate from Imperial College London in 2008.

Maconochie instigated the founding of the Association of Paediatric Emergency Medicine (APEM) for the UK and Ireland around 2000. Maconochie helped develop UK and European training curricula for the specialty.

Maconochie is a consultant in paediatric emergency medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Maconochie has also served as chief clinical information officer for West London Children’s Healthcare. Maconochie sat on NHS England’s London Urgent and Emergency Care Clinical Leadership Group from 2013 to 2017, and has advised the World Health Organization on pediatric triage and emergency care.

Maconochie is a past president of Paediatric Emergency Research in the UK and Ireland (PERUKI), APEM’s research network. Maconochie chaired the paediatric section of the European Society for Emergency Medicine (EuSEM) from 2014 to 2017.

Maconochie has been a Visiting Professor to Queen Margaret Children’s Hospital in Perth, Australia, is an Honorary Associate Professor in the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Visiting Fellow to the Centre of Reviews and Dissemination, University of York. 

Maconochie is a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH). Maconochie served as the College’s Registrar from November 2012 to November 2017, which overlapped with the time Hilary Cass served as RCPCH.

Anti-trans activism

In 2024, Maconochie was a signatory to an open letter criticizing the British Medical Association (BMA), which called for a public critique of the Cass Review. That letter’s lead signer was Louise Irvine of anti-trans hate group Genspect and Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender. 

Maconochie also co-authored a 2024 article defending the Cass Review. This paper is illustrative of how Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) and ideological allies within professional associations and journals frame their political aims as apolitical, while claiming their critics are politically motivated. See the profile of lead author C. Ronny Cheung for a detailed analysis of Maconochie’s paper.

Selected writing by Maconochie

Cheung, C. R., Abbruzzese, E., Lockhart, E., Maconochie, I. K., & Kingdon, C. C. (2024). Gender medicine and the Cass Review: why medicine and the law make poor bedfellows. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 110(4), 251–255. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2024-327994

Irvine, Louise; Maconochie, Ian; other signatories (2024). Not In Our Name BMA. notinournamebma.co.uk

Resources

Imperial College London (imperial.ac.uk)

• Dr Ian Maconochie
• profiles.imperial.ac.uk/i.maconochie/about

ORCID (orcid.org)

• Ian Maconochie
• orcid.org/0000-0001-6319-8550

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust Department of Research and Education in Emergency medicine, Acute medicine and Major trauma (dreeam.ac.uk)

• Ian Maconochie
• dreeam.ac.uk/neptune/people/ian-kristen-maconochie [archive]

HSJ (hsj.co.uk)

• Ian Maconochie
• hsj.co.uk/ian-maconochie/3009290.bio