John Swinney’s first speech to SNP conference risks being overshadowed by a row over  trans healthcare.

The party’s LGBTQ+ wing, Out For Independence, has tabled a motion calling for the NHS to scrap the need for a psychiatric diagnosis before an adult can receive gender-affirming care.

It will be the final policy discussion of the three-day conference in Edinburgh, and will take place right before John Swinney's keynote address.

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The group are asking delegates to back calls for “gender affirming care to be brought in line with all other models of healthcare for adults, and operate off of an informed consent model without additional need for a psychiatric diagnosis.”

Gender affirming care covers a range of medical interventions and support including the prescription of hormones and in some cases surgery.

One MSP described the motion as “childish” and a "completely divisive issue."

“I was staggered to see the motion from Out for Independence,” they said.

“Most members know the obsession with identity politics hasn’t served us.

“Surely before the First Minister’s speech it would have been sensible to have a debate that spoke to the general public.”

They also pointed to concerns raised by Dr Hilary Cass around the quality of treatment being offered to adults with gender dysphoria which has prompted a review of services in England.

In May, the consultant paediatrician, who earlier in the year published a report on gender care for children and young people, said she had been approached by a number of clinicians working in adult gender clinics with concerns.

This includes issues around consent and the use of hormones.

She also said staff told her their colleagues failed to correct or challenge patients’ “magical thinking”, “ie unrealistic beliefs about what could achieved through medical transition.”

Dr Cass said a common concern “was the very limited time for assessment and the expectation that patients would be put on hormones by their second visit.”

She added: “The majority of patient presentations were extremely complex, with a mix of trauma, abuse, mental health diagnoses, past forensic history, ASD and ADHD, and therefore this limited assessment was inadequate.”

For Women Scotland said the Out For Independence motion was “illiterate and ideological.”

“Calling for access to life-altering medical procedures without a diagnosis is antithetical to how the NHS works and more akin to the ‘magical’ thinking outlined by Dr Cass in her concerns regarding adult gender clinics.

“The majority of patients present with complex problems and co-existing mental health issues which take time to clinically assess. It is irresponsible of the SNP to suggest side-stepping this and it helps no-one, least of all the patients they claim to speak on behalf of.”

A spokesperson for Out For Independence said they were disappointed that SNP MSPs were “once again running to the press with internal issues rather than getting in touch with us.”

They added: “As far as we are concerned, conference is the venue for proposing new, bold policy ideas and resolving them through vigorous, open debate. If MSPs find that open debate is not to their liking, perhaps they might reflect on whether party politics is for them.”

They said they “vehemently disagree with the assertion that this policy proposal is either 'childish' or 'serves no one'.”

“Trans people in Scotland currently have wait times of over four years to access basic healthcare due to gatekeeping behind specialist services and psychiatric diagnoses.

“As the SNP's LGBTQ+ affiliate, trans people are part of the constituency we represent, and this was a policy that was passed at OFI's internal conference by acclaim.

“We therefore have the backing of our membership to put this resolution forward. We also fail to see how proposing that we bring our standards of care for adults in line with peer nations like Canada is 'childish'.”

They added: “We certainly haven't been approached by any MSPs, and if their first course of action is to act in bad faith - rather than having a conversation with our affiliate - then that is their prerogative.

“Had they done so, they may have avoided embarrassing themselves by referencing a highly-contested review of children and young people's services for different country's separate healthcare system, when our resolution solely concerns adult care.

“Lastly, while we are flattered that some elected members seem to think that we have control over the timings of Conference agenda, we have no input into this. They will have to take it up with whoever compiled the running order.”