Nearly 900 doctors sign letter urging BMA to abandon inquiry into Cass review

Doctors and clinical leaders have called on the BMA to abandon its plan to “publicly critique” Hilary Cass’s review of gender identity services for children and teenagers and to retract its demand to allow puberty blockers to be given to children with gender related distress while this evaluation takes place.12

A total of 870 doctors, including 557 BMA members, have signed the letter addressed to Philip Banfield, the BMA’s chair of council, saying that they are “extremely disappointed” that BMA council members took part in an “opaque and secretive” vote on the Cass review last month.3 It was this vote that led the BMA to announce last week that it was setting up its own “task and finish” inquiry to “publicly critique” what the letter described as the “most comprehensive review into healthcare for children with gender related distress ever conducted.”

The letter, seen exclusively by The BMJ and New Statesman, has been signed by 57 professors and 22 clinical leaders, including former or current presidents of royal …