Tavistock gender clinic whistleblowers have been vindicated

The Care Quality Commission has released its reports on the gender identity services offered by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. They make for grim reading.

The CQC describes an NHS facility that — until last month — put vulnerable children on a pathway to the use of untested medicines and life-changing interventions, sometimes without keeping proper records proving consent for treatment or demonstrating the reasons for that treatment. An NHS service where staff were afraid to raise concerns about procedure and practice for fear of ‘retribution’ from their employers. An NHS service that failed to ask fundamental questions about the growing number of vulnerable children being presented for treatment.

You can read the full core CQC report here, but a very good, sober summary of the investigation here on the BBC website. (Given that I’ve sometimes criticised the BBC’s coverage of gender issues, it’s right that I say that today’s coverage is solid and professional.