Staff who championed the use of experimental drugs on vulnerable young people at the NHS’s disgraced gender identity clinic have been accused of “riding off into the sunset, leaving ruin behind”.

Former whistleblowers have condemned the payouts that will go to staff of the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) when they leave the controversial service at the end of this month, claiming they are being “rewarded for malpractice”.

Dr Polly Carmichael, the outgoing director of Gids at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, is understood to be in line for a payout of at least £80,000 after presiding over a service which sent countless young people into the medical unknown, on drugs which the NHS now says are not backed up by enough evidence to be considered safe.