Dozens of children put at risk after gender care failures at GP clinic, inquiry finds

Dozens of children put at risk after gender care failures at GP clinic, inquiry finds Just now Share Save Add as preferred on Google Alison Holt , Social affairs editor and Jim Reed , Health reporter BBC Dozens of children questioning their gender, including some under 13 years old, were inappropriately prescribed medication by a Brighton GP practice, an NHS safety investigation has found. A year-long inquiry into the WellBN clinic found that 78 young patients were potentially harmed after puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones were prescribed without proper checks. More than 20 children were given medication without a face-to-face appointment between February 2023 and December 2025. In a website statement, WellBN said it recognised "the seriousness and sensitivity of the matters raised" and that its priority remained providing "compassionate, safe and effective care for all patients". NHS England has told the clinic it must stop offering new prescriptions to children, and said a number of current and former clinicians had been referred to medical regulators. One of the doctors identified in the report has been suspended from working as an NHS GP while further investigations are ongoing. Dr Christopher Tibbs, regional medical director for NHS England, said that young people were put at a high risk of harm because clinicians provided "specialist diagnosis, care and treatment that they were neither qualified, nor commissioned to deliver". "Under no circumstances should this have happened," he added. Trans health hub In 2020, WellBN opened a transgender health hub in Brighton and, by last year, around 2,000 patients of all ages had registered, many from outside the city. The service was set up in part because patients were facing extremely long waits to be seen by one of the three specialist gender services that now operate in England. The investigation, run by five independent clinicians appointed by NHS Sussex, began in June 2025 after several families had complained about the services the clinic was offering to under 18s, and after a civil legal case had started against the clinic and the NHS. One father told the BBC that his 16-year-old child was given hormones without his knowledge in what he describes as a "medical scandal" while another said the stress of the situation had left him suicidal. The final report said that 78 children under 18 years old were prescribed gender medication by the clinic from 2023 to late 2025. Some were given drugs designed to delay or suppress puberty, while others were given cross-sex hormones, also known as masculinising and feminising hormones. These help a person develop physical characteristics associated with their identified gender rather than their biological sex. This can lead to irreversible changes such as a deeper voice or breast development. The report found that: Overall the approach to care fell "far short of what could be considered safe or appropriate" None of the clinicians investigated were