NHS inquiry finds Brighton GP gender hub ‘potentially harmed’ 78 children
The WellBn clinic was subject of a year long safety investigation (Image: https://www.wellbn.co.uk/)
An NHS safety investigation found 78 under-18s at the WellBN clinic in Brighton were potentially harmed after being prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without proper checks. The findings are published on the NHS investigation page.
More than 20 children were given medication without a face-to-face appointment between February 2023 and December 2025. Necessary blood tests were often not carried out, and the overall risk to young patients was potentially high, with actual harm difficult to quantify in part because of poor record-keeping.
NHS England told WellBN it must stop offering new prescriptions to children and said a number of current and former clinicians had been referred to medical regulators. One unnamed doctor was suspended from working as an NHS GP while further investigations are ongoing.
Dr Christopher Tibbs, regional medical director for NHS England, said 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”. He added: “Under no circumstances should this have happened,”
The inquiry found 44 children aged 16 and under were prescribed drugs designed to delay or suppress puberty, including 12 children under 13 and one aged 11. It also found 51 children aged 16 and under were given cross-sex hormones, including four under 13. In 53 of the 78 cases reviewed, there were possible neuro-developmental issues.
How the inquiry began
WellBN opened a transgender health hub in Brighton in 2020 and, by last year, around 2,000 patients of all ages had registered, many from outside the city. The investigation began in June 2025 after families complained about services offered to under-18s and after a civil legal case had started against the clinic and the NHS. It was run by five independent clinicians appointed by NHS Sussex.
WellBN said in a website statement it recognised “the seriousness and sensitivity of the matters raised” and that its priority remained providing “compassionate, safe and effective care for all patients”.
Trans youth healthcare context
In the UK, most specialist NHS gender services are delivered through commissioned providers rather than standard GP practices, with GPs typically referring patients into specialist pathways. However, gender care in England has been undergoing major restructuring since 2024, with increased emphasis on regional services against a backdrop of long waits. Trans people and advocates continue to raise concerns about the impact of poor service provision, including issues raised at Alice Litman’s inquest hearing about waiting lists.
Trans youth are now incapable of obtaining new prescriptions for puberty blockers through the NHS after it has temporarily paused a trial on the treatment.
