A new Welsh Gender Service will start seeing patients in September, the Welsh Government has said.

The Welsh Government has been criticised over delays to the opening of the country’s first gender identity clinic.

It will be based in St David’s Hospital, near Cardiff city centre.

Vaughan Gething, health minister, said setting up the service was the “first step in enabling people to access services closer to home”.

Currently transgender patients have are referred to a London clinic for care and support.

It had been planned that the service would open in April, but this did not happen.

The delay prompted the Wales Equality Alliance, a transgender rights group, to write an open letter expressing their anger.

It raised concerns about the impact delays were having on waiting lists, and on the mental health of people wanting treatment.