free will writing service nhs

Free Wills for NHS staff, Key Workers & Family Members

In our nation's time of need, we couldn't be prouder of the brave men and women who have performed key roles in our society, helping those who need it most.

That's why we're offering a totally free Will to registered NHS staff, Key Workers and their family members.

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Protect your loved ones

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Leave legacies and gifts to whomever you choose

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We'll even make sure one of our trained legal executives checks your Will to make sure everything's in place.

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Our service is currently available to all key workers in England & Wales. Unfortunately we are unable to serve residents of Scotland at this time.

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Nhs workers offered free wills following spike in demand.

NHS workers are being offered free wills as demand for them surges during the coronavirus pandemic.

Online will writing company Farewill said it would waive its £90 fee for medical professionals “for the foreseeable future”.

The company said it saw almost twelve times the number of requests from NHS workers in March compared to December 2019.

Reports suggest at least ten NHS workers have died after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Farewill chief executive Dan Garrett said: “When we started seeing the volume of enquiries from NHS workers grow so steeply, we all wanted to support them.

“So, to give them peace of mind and make the process as simple as possible in the middle of what must be an incredibly demanding time, they can make a will with us in as little as 15 minutes, for free.”

One customer, A&E nurse and mother of two young children, Amy Bywater, who works at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, said: “‘I’ve thought about making a will in the past but I’ve never got round to it. I wasn’t sure I was in the right age group to be honest. Now, especially working on the front line, it makes you think. You never know what might happen.”

Free wills for NHS staff are redeemable at farewill.com/nhs .

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Protect your home

Protect your children

Protect your estate

Protect your spouse

How do I make a will?

Accord have written thousands of Wills over the years. We know that making the right Will is the best way to protect your assets and your loved ones. However, not everybody realises just how important a Will is.

“surely my spouse will inherit everything after i die”.

This is, unfortunately, not always the case. Wills are highly important documents, and not having a Will means leaving the power in the hands of the law and the rules of intestacy when it comes to deciding what happens to your assets when you’re gone.

Having ‘a’ Will is certainly better than not having one at all, but the majority of people do not have the  ‘right’  Will. Whilst a Standard Will may state your basic wishes, it cannot, and does not, offer any protection whatsoever to your estate or beneficiaries. A basic Will merely gives you a say in what happens to everything you own. The ‘Right’ Will can protect your assets and your loved ones and prevent delays, expense and heartache.

“I’ve worked hard for my savings. I want it all to go to my family.”

Sadly, it isn’t that simple. Without a will, the people you want to benefit from your estate may get next to nothing, while the people you didn’t want to benefit at all may be entitled to a share!

“I’ve got young children; who would look after them if the worst should happen?”

Without a Will, Care Authorities will decide who is best equipped to look after your children. Shouldn’t you, their parent, be the one to decide what’s best for them after you’re gone?

“What would happen to my children’s inheritance if my spouse remarries?”

The only way to ensure your children inherit as much as possible is to make the right Will. Otherwise, remarrying could adversely affect the inheritance your children deserve. This is because only your most recently made Will is valid. In the event of your spouse remarrying, your wishes would be disregarded.

Your future… your choice!

We can advise you of all of the available options tailored to your individual circumstances. You will have all the information you need to select the type of Will that  you  feel best suits you and your family’s needs.

When it comes to your family’s future, YOU know what’s best. Accord can help put it in writing.

Here at Accord, we realise writing a Will can be a daunting task; we’ll help you take on the challenge, providing expert support and guidance- all from the comfort of your own home, discreetly and in confidence.

The difficulties we face near the end of our lives, particularly care fees, can dramatically deplete our savings, leaving nothing left for our loved ones. You can avoid this by utilising the Right Will. We offer a range of options to suit your circumstances; we’ll help you tailor make a Will that’s right for you.

Experts In Drafting Wills

Accord Legal Services are experts in Wills and Trusts. Our legal team have decades of collective experience specialising in this area. Our comprehensive Wills can safeguard you, your family and your assets, for life and beyond. By utilising powerful protective measures, our Wills- coupled with good planning- can ensure your family’s inheritance is protected from unnecessary losses. These include government fees, care fees, taxes and claims from unintended beneficiaries against your estate.

The ‘Right’ Will can make the world of difference to those you leave behind

If your Will simply leaves everything to each other on first death, or if you are single, divorced or widowed, then it offers you and your loved ones no protection at all. Remember, your Will only comes into effect on your death. This means your loved ones only get what you have left at that time! Your estate will have already had to pay out any debts and expenses during your lifetime. Furthermore, care fees, Inheritance Tax and other unexpected costs could leave your loved ones with little left to inherit.

Make sure you leave your assets to those you love – not those you don’t!

We have over 200 consultants across the country waiting to write your will. make sure you leave your assets to those you love. arrange your free consultation now., make sure you leave your assets to those you love, we are proud to be offering free wills for our nhs staff and other key workers as a way of saying thank you for all their hard work throughout the pandemic., book a consultation, prefer a chat.

Contact us today to discuss the right will for you and arrange a free home visit with your local consultant.

Call us on 01744 807048 or use the form at the link below.

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FREE Will Writing Service

Free will drafting service.

All employees and their partners at 4ways Healthcare are entitled to benefit from Dunham McCarthy’s exceptional will writing service. Dunham McCarthy provide this service completely free of charge to all employees and their partners.

We understand making a will may feel daunting and is something that is often put off until it’s too late, however our experienced advisors are on hand to put your mind at rest and make the process simple and easy to understand. So, whether this is your initial introduction to wills or you have more complex estate planning needs, please feel free to contact us.

WHY MAKE A WILL? Dying without a Will makes a difficult time even harder for your family.

You risk depriving your spouse or partner of their home, increasing any potential inheritance tax liability and leaving your estate in the wrong hands. With a younger family if the worst happens, in addition to having to deal with the loss of a parent children are faced with other problems, they may have to move house or change school; they may even be taken into care whilst social services appoint a suitable guardian.

Book your appointment.

NOTICE: We make 400 places available each month for the Free Will Writing Service, due to high demand we are currently fully booked several months ahead. We are in the process of training new staff and intend to increase the availability over the next few months.

ABOUT DUNHAM MCCARTHY

3 easy steps, will instructions.

A fully qualified estate planner will talk you through your choices. If you are unsure of anything during this first meeting, you will have the opportunity to confirm details on the second meeting.

Will Checking

At this meeting we check your draft Will(s). During this meeting we record details of your assets and liabilities so please have paperwork available for any savings, investments or insurance policies.

Will Signing

In this third and final meeting your final documents will be checked and the attestation process explained. We will tie up any loose ends and conclude the process.

RECENT FEEDBACK We were referred by a relative and so glad that we had our Will’s done with Dunham McCarthy. They were incredibly efficient with every aspect and despite the fact we could not meet in person due to the current condition world wide everything was organised over the phone and on Video Chat via Microsoft Teams.

Recent feedback very informative, professional and helpful company no pressures to take out unnecessary policies. video calling worked well and responses to questions either on call or email were swift. definitely recommend them to others., recent feedback excellent service. this was our first will writing experience and we were talked through the process thoroughly and clearly. mitchell was very patient with my 100’s of questions. would recommend. thank you, recent feedback couldn’t recommend this company enough. the whole service we have received from start to finish is exemplary. the process from beginning to end was explained extremely well and communications were open and updates receive regularly. would recommend to anyone., recent feedback tim sorted our wills and poas. he was patient and explained things simply and concisely. visited us at home. good price for an excellent service. would highly recommend., recent feedback we had our wills done with dunham mccarthy and i was so impressed with the service i received. tracey is such a lovely approachable person as well as being professional at all times. thank you dunham mccarthy for such a lovely experience, recent feedback fantastic customer service. it was easy to arrange the face to face meeting, we had plenty of communication. the representative was very polite and professional. he was very informative and he was not pushy to sell the added extras., recent feedback excellent service. the timeline and steps were easy to understand and the sessions were scheduled in good time. the adviser answered all of our questions demonstrating good knowledge about the products & services. overall excellent and recommended..

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“FREE Will Writing Service to all NHS staff”

For anyone who was in any doubt, this mornings headline in ‘The Irish News’, reinforced the risks that our NHS staff are taking on our behalf in the fight against Covid-19 and their heroism in attempting to save lives.

Our firm has been serving the community in Mid- Ulster for over 90 years and now is the time for us to support our NHS staff in any way that we can.

We firmly believe that offering our will writing service free of charge to all NHS staff is the right thing to do at this most difficult time for them and their families.

Our team of experienced and dedicated Solicitors continue to operate remotely during the ongoing pandemic, however due to the urgency of the need for many NHS staff to put their affairs in order, we ask that they contact us at [email protected] ( or use this page ) and we will make arrangements for our solicitors to contact them and thereafter attend our office to ensure that the will is executed and witnessed in accordance with the law.”

Stephen Atherton and Marysia Kelly Directors John J.McNally and Co Magherafelt

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Planning for your future with RCNLaw

Making time to write a will 

We spend our lives working to support ourselves and our loved ones, yet 57% of us do not have a will. Many people are also unaware of the problems of dying without a will (intestate). You do not need to own a property or have significant wealth to protect the financial security of your loved ones. 

Making a will is easier than you think

If you don’t have a will yet, don’t worry - the expert team of legal professionals at RCNLaw  is here to support you. RCNLaw provides a fast, efficient and friendly service at a discounted rate for RCN members. It also offers highly competitive rates for your family and friends.

RCNLaw will help you to ensure your wishes are carried out. Our team can help ensure the financial security of your estate and provide you and your loved ones with peace of mind that your wishes are set out for the future.

Take our ten second will challenge

  Wills are living documents

Have you recently been through a significant life event? For example: 

• Moving to a new house? 
• Getting married? 
• Having or adopting children? 
• Become divorced or widowed?  
• Experiencing a downturn in your finances? 
• Received a large bonus or compensation?
• Or invested in a second home?   

All these situations would result in a change to your chosen beneficiaries. If you have already made your will, it is important to keep it up to date, so it is still relevant and valid. 

• a telephone conversation with one of our legal experts
• detailed legal advice to ensure the will meets your needs
• Will drafting plus written advice and instructions
• free secure storage of your new will 

Will making fees start from just £80.

Contact RCNLaw about wills

Read our FAQs here .

Webinar: RCNLaw Wills 101

Why write a will 

• It ensures that your wishes are clearly set out. 
• It is advisable to have a will written when your assets are worth more than £5,000. 
• It gives you the opportunity to set out your wishes for specific items or charity donations. 
• If you have young children, you choose who you wish to appoint as their responsible guardians.
• It gives you the control to select the people who will manage your affairs after your death. 
• It protects the financial security of your loved ones. 
• It eliminates any unnecessary distress for your loved ones. 
• It provides you with the peace of mind that your wishes are set out for the future.  

Fees  

Fees vary depending on the complexity of the documents and the size of the estate, but start at: 

• Single will from £80 for RCN members (£99 for non-members) plus VAT. 
• Joint will from £100 for RCN members (£125 non-members) plus VAT. 

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Dorothy House has collaborated with two free will writing services to offer our community the opportunity to make or update your will free of charge.

Writing your will for free with Dorothy House

Writing your will helps to provide peace of mind that your loved ones, and the causes that matter to you, are taken care of just as you have chosen once you have died.

Below, we have listed the ways you can write your free will.

Online and over the telephone

Farewill  is award winning and the largest will writing service in the UK. To start writing your will for free in the comfort of your own home, with specialist checking either online or over the telephone, please follow the ‘complete your online will here’ button and follow the steps provided by Farewill.

Your free will code will be automatically applied when you checkout.

Please read our terms and conditions before applying, as not every will is eligible for the free service.

Create your free will online Create your free will over the telephone Terms and conditions

With a solicitor

The National Free Wills Network will put you in touch with a local solicitor. There are over 900 solicitors in the UK involved in the Network.

To enquire about writing your will for free with a local solicitor, please get in touch with our Head of Legacies, Sarah Dodd on [email protected] or call 01225 721480.

Questions about writing your free will

If you have any questions about either of our free will writing services, please do get in touch on [email protected] or call 01225 721480.

By using our free will writing service, you are not obligated to leave a gift to Dorothy House. However, we hope you might consider it. A gift of even 1% of your estate will make a difference to us. Currently, one in every five of our patients is taken care of with thanks to gifts left in wills.

Leaving a gift in your will to Dorothy House Hospice Care

If you are considering leaving us a gift in your will – thank you so much! Every gift makes a difference.

Approximately 20% of our funding is provided by NHS contracts – the rest comes from people like you .

Find out more about gifts in wills

Write your will for FREE with our free online will writing service

Posted on: 24 Oct 2022

Write your Will for FREE this Free Wills Month, with our free no-obligation online Will writing service, through our partner Bequeathed.

Why should you leave a will.

Although writing a Will can be an emotional experience, knowing that you have planned ahead can give you and your loved ones peace of mind. And, if you choose to leave a donation toward Nottingham hospitals, not only will you be helping your loved ones, you’ll also be supporting the wider Nottingham community and thanking your local NHS for their care.

How do I leave a legacy?

It’s really easy to do. With Bequeathed , just fill in the blanks on our secure online interview form, which takes just 20 minutes. Once you’ve followed all the steps including signing and witnessing your Will, it will then become a legal document.

If you already have a Will in place but would like to include Nottingham Hospitals Charity, just get in touch with your solicitor who can arrange this on your behalf.

How much should I leave to Nottingham hospitals?

Typically, when writing your Will, you could declare a percentage of your estate, perhaps 1% or 5%. If, for example, you were to leave 1% of your £200,000 estate, Nottingham Hospitals Charity would receive £2,000. 5% would allow for £10,000 and so on. It’s really up to you how much you wish to leave in your legacy.

Where does it go?

The money you choose to leave in your legacy will go to the area of the hospitals that is closest to your heart. Whether that’s a Ward you have been treated on or an department which researches into a condition which affects a loved one, just let us know in your Will which area and then we can ensure that the money will go directly to them.

Why should I leave a donation in my Will?

Did you know that one of our main sources of donations is through legacies? Because of your generosity in your Will, we are able to continue to support areas of Nottingham hospitals by funding equipment, facilities and wellbeing for patients and staff, which make a huge impact on patient care.

We really couldn’t do what we do without your help and support.

Marion’s story

Marion Irish left £535,000 to Nottingham City Hospital’s Haematology Service , which has allowed us to fund a significant research fellowship.

After travelling the world with her husband who was a top government official and living in places such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Gibraltar, Marion settled down in Dorset but never lost her Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire roots. The unit at City Hospital was also renamed the Bethell ( Marion’s maiden name) Haematology Daycase Unit in her honour.

Marion’s niece, Jayne Stocks say “I called Marion my ‘exotic’ aunt because she lived all over the world. It was always her intention leave her money to charity as she had no children.

“It’s good to know that her legacy will benefit people and patients.”

Keep up to date

Sign up to our newsletter to keep in the loop about fundraisers, stories, news and more from Nottingham Hospitals Charity.

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Free Will writing service

Through our partnership with The National Free Wills Network, you can contact a solicitor to write your Will for free.

The National Free Wills Network is a trusted network of over 800 solicitors who can write or update your Will for free. They have written thousands of Wills for people all over the country, so you can be sure you’re in good hands.

To access the National Free Wills Network, please contact our legacy manager David James on 023 8120 8881 or email your name and address to [email protected] and we will pass your details on to the network. You will then receive in the post details of participating local solicitors.

If you’d prefer, you can add your details to the form below for us to pass on. We promise not to share or sell your details to anyone else.

Did you know you can leave Southampton Hospitals Charity 1% in your Will, so those closest to you inherit the remaining 99%?

David James, Individual Giving Officer

The difference your gift could make

Free Will Guide

Sheffield Hallam University Branch

UNISON FREE WILLS SERVICE FOR MEMBERS

UNISON offers a free standard wills service for members and their partners (if doing a mirror will). We also offer reduced rates for members’ complex wills.

The simplest way to obtain your will is to use our bespoke on line wills service.

Access UNISON’s free will service

UNISON’s online wills service is very straightforward to use, just complete the online questionnaire. The questionnaire with its online guidance will carefully take you through the process. 

We have also negotiated a low-cost wills service for members and their families.

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Farewill Free Will Writing Service

We’re excited to let you know that Brighter Futures has partnered with Farewill , to offer supporters like you an opportunity to write a simple will online for free. Farewill is the largest will writer in the UK and allows you to write your will straight away from the comfort of your own home. You can complete it in less than 30 minutes!

Leaving a gift in your will

There is no obligation to leave a gift to Brighter Futures. But, after you have provided for those closest to you, we hope you’ll be inspired to leave a gift to support the work of Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

A gift of even 1% in your will could help us make a lasting difference to the healthcare of people in our local community.

Write your free will today!

If you would like to take advantage of this time-limited will-writing promotion click here to start writing your will with Farewill .

The Farewill service is suitable for adults writing a simple will and our charity is running this offer to promote giving in wills. It is available to Brighter Futures supporters living in England and Wales.

Further Information

• If you have questions about estate planning or need professional advice we recommend you seek independent legal advice.

• The Citizens Advice Bureau provides helpful information on wills here .

• Follow this link to read about the incredible impact gifts in Wills have made at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

• If you have any queries please get in touch with Tina Outlaw in the Brighter Futures Fundraising Team.

Free Will Writing Services

Our supporters and people affected by MND can write or amend a simple or mirror Will for free using our Will writing service via The National Free Wills Network.

This is a great opportunity to ensure your family is protected and your wishes will be followed, without having to worry about the costs involved

Request your free Will writing information pack

How does it work.

• Request your free Will writing information pack and complete the online form
• Our partner, The National Free Wills Network will send you a Will-writing pack by post or email with a list of your local participating solicitors
• Make an appointment with your chosen solicitor and work with them to write or update your Will.
• There's no obligation to include a gift to the MND Association in your Will but, after your loved ones are taken care of, we would be grateful if you could give it some thought.

What is The National Free Wills Network?

The National Free Wills Network have teamed up with local solicitors across the UK and some of your favourite charities to make it easier for you to write your Will. Having an up-to-date Will prepared by a solicitor is the best way to ensure that your future wishes will be carried out. It is also the perfect way to leave something to help the charity continue their vital work for generations to come, though there is no obligation to do so.

139 charities are involved in The National Free Wills Network, along with 808 solicitors, who offer the charity a reduced rate to write a simple Will for the charities' known supporters. All solicitors act exclusively in the interests of their client and not the charity.

You can find out more information about The National Free Wills Network here .

What type of Will can be written?

The MND Association is offering a limited number of simple or mirror Wills to be written by a participating solicitor through The National Free Wills Network. It also includes the update of an existing Will. A simple Will is defined by each firm of solicitors and may vary. If a more complicated Will is required, the simple element remains free and the solicitor is entitled to ask you to pay the difference.

Who can use our free Will service?

We are offering this service to any of our supporters who are thinking about writing or amending their Will. There is no restriction on age to take advantage of this service.

What if I have accessibility requirements?

The National Free Will Network will endeavor to locate a solicitor that meets your needs. 

When requesting your free Will writing information pack you will be asked if you have any accessibility or communication requirements, please provide us with details and a member of our team will contact you if any additional information is needed.

Do I have to leave a gift to the MND Association in my Will?

There is no obligation to include a gift to the MND Association in your Will to use this service.

What will my information be used for?

By completing the form below you agree to the MND Association passing your details onto the third party managing this offer, The Free Wills Network, who will send you a list of your local participating solicitors by post or email. 

For more information on how the Association treats your data, please see our privacy policy .

Gifts in Wills make the impossible possible

pays for detailed analysis of the DNA of someone with MND - helping researchers better understand the causes of the disease and identify potential treatment

funds one year of advanced data-processing and storage for research projects involving ‘multiomics’ of individual cells, generating and analysing a high level of advanced data

of a £400,000 estate funds an MND healthcare research project for a year, which aims to improve quality of life and care for people affected by MND

Prefer to speak to our Legacies Team?

Email us: [email protected]

Call us: 01604 611799

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Amanda Hoover

Students Are Likely Writing Millions of Papers With AI

Students have submitted more than 22 million papers that may have used generative AI in the past year, new data released by plagiarism detection company Turnitin shows.

A year ago, Turnitin rolled out an AI writing detection tool that was trained on its trove of papers written by students as well as other AI-generated texts. Since then, more than 200 million papers have been reviewed by the detector, predominantly written by high school and college students. Turnitin found that 11 percent may contain AI-written language in 20 percent of its content, with 3 percent of the total papers reviewed getting flagged for having 80 percent or more AI writing. (Turnitin is owned by Advance, which also owns Condé Nast, publisher of WIRED.) Turnitin says its detector has a false positive rate of less than 1 percent when analyzing full documents.

ChatGPT’s launch was met with knee-jerk fears that the English class essay would die . The chatbot can synthesize information and distill it near-instantly—but that doesn’t mean it always gets it right. Generative AI has been known to hallucinate , creating its own facts and citing academic references that don’t actually exist. Generative AI chatbots have also been caught spitting out biased text on gender and race . Despite those flaws, students have used chatbots for research, organizing ideas, and as a ghostwriter . Traces of chatbots have even been found in peer-reviewed, published academic writing .

Teachers understandably want to hold students accountable for using generative AI without permission or disclosure. But that requires a reliable way to prove AI was used in a given assignment. Instructors have tried at times to find their own solutions to detecting AI in writing, using messy, untested methods to enforce rules , and distressing students. Further complicating the issue, some teachers are even using generative AI in their grading processes.

Detecting the use of gen AI is tricky. It’s not as easy as flagging plagiarism, because generated text is still original text. Plus, there’s nuance to how students use gen AI; some may ask chatbots to write their papers for them in large chunks or in full, while others may use the tools as an aid or a brainstorm partner.

Students also aren't tempted by only ChatGPT and similar large language models. So-called word spinners are another type of AI software that rewrites text, and may make it less obvious to a teacher that work was plagiarized or generated by AI. Turnitin’s AI detector has also been updated to detect word spinners, says Annie Chechitelli, the company’s chief product officer. It can also flag work that was rewritten by services like spell checker Grammarly, which now has its own generative AI tool . As familiar software increasingly adds generative AI components, what students can and can’t use becomes more muddled.

Detection tools themselves have a risk of bias. English language learners may be more likely to set them off; a 2023 study found a 61.3 percent false positive rate when evaluating Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exams with seven different AI detectors. The study did not examine Turnitin’s version. The company says it has trained its detector on writing from English language learners as well as native English speakers. A study published in October found that Turnitin was among the most accurate of 16 AI language detectors in a test that had the tool examine undergraduate papers and AI-generated papers.

Andy Greenberg

Schools that use Turnitin had access to the AI detection software for a free pilot period, which ended at the start of this year. Chechitelli says a majority of the service’s clients have opted to purchase the AI detection. But the risks of false positives and bias against English learners have led some universities to ditch the tools for now. Montclair State University in New Jersey announced in November that it would pause use of Turnitin’s AI detector. Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University did the same last summer.

“This is hard. I understand why people want a tool,” says Emily Isaacs, executive director of the Office of Faculty Excellence at Montclair State. But Isaacs says the university is concerned about potentially biased results from AI detectors, as well as the fact that the tools can’t provide confirmation the way they can with plagiarism. Plus, Montclair State doesn’t want to put a blanket ban on AI, which will have some place in academia. With time and more trust in the tools, the policies could change. “It’s not a forever decision, it’s a now decision,” Isaacs says.

Chechitelli says the Turnitin tool shouldn’t be the only consideration in passing or failing a student. Instead, it’s a chance for teachers to start conversations with students that touch on all of the nuance in using generative AI. “People don’t really know where that line should be,” she says.

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A Labour government will have five years to fix the NHS or face the unthinkable

Public satisfaction with the health service is at an all-time low, so now might be time to reconsider what we expect from it

I n the NHS’s long lifetime, people have consistently made the same two assumptions. The first is that the health service could at any minute cease to exist. The second is that the NHS is so important in Brits’ view of their country and wellbeing that it wins, or loses, elections.

Even when the health service was being set up, its founder Nye Bevan was asking the medical profession to see it as an experiment and give it a go. Within a decade, there were gloomy sounding BBC documentaries marking 10 years of the NHS, asking how much longer it would last. There had already been standoffs within government over how much money it was sucking from other public services. And in so many of the ensuing elections, the Labour party has assumed it will win on the NHS, while the Tories have feared they will lose.

Last week’s shocking British Social Attitudes survey results , showing satisfaction in the NHS at a record low, only strengthens those assumptions. Just 24% of people in England, Scotland and Wales said they were satisfied with their health service, and 52% said they were dissatisfied – also an all-time high. It also found that 91% of the public believed the NHS should remain free at the point of access, and 82% said it should be funded primarily from taxation and universally accessible.

There have been two reactions from the political world to these numbers. One is to argue that Brits are finally falling out of love with the NHS – which is contradicted by the continuing high support for its principles. The second is that because voters still believe in a taxpayer-funded, free-at-point-of-access universal service, then the only problem will ever be whether the health service is being funded properly and well run. Neither are quite right.

There have been previous existential crises. At the turn of the millennium, New Labour figures became so worried by what were then record-breaking falls in satisfaction and high waiting lists and times that they started to fear the drop in satisfaction would be followed by a loss of consent from taxpayers for the NHS altogether. They were concerned that, as people began to realise that they were paying twice for their healthcare – once through taxes for the NHS and again to access private treatment quicker and in a hospital that wasn’t falling down – taxpayers would start to question where their money was going. Back then, support for the founding principles of the NHS remained high, but the fear was that it was only a matter of time before that started to fall, too. Tony Blair and his health secretaries , particularly Alan Milburn and John Reid, set about on a programme of huge reforms and massive investment in the health service to try to turn things around. They largely succeeded, but today’s crisis is of a completely different order.

Waiting lists are still higher than 7 million , and were already going up before the pandemic. The industrial action has made matters much worse, but underlying much of it is a feeling among healthcare workers that their employer and the government has treated them appallingly for too long. Even when the next election does come along and waiting lists are finally starting to move in the right direction, there will still be voters who have received care who are nonetheless angry that they were kept waiting for so long and that their lives ended up on hold in the meantime.

This then leads to the second assumption, that the NHS is a decisive factor in elections. Many Labourites have long believed that, not least because they are still wedded to the mantra that because the Tories voted against the legislation on the NHS back in 1946, you can’t trust them with it today. Blair’s “24 hours to save the NHS” line in 1997, coupled with a meaningless pledge to “cut NHS waiting lists by treating an extra 100,000 patients”, has become totemic, too. But the truth is that Labour has always campaigned hard on the health service in every election, win or lose, and while it is always salient, it doesn’t win elections. Just look back five years earlier from 1997, to the “war of Jennifer’s ear” , a bizarre fight in the 1992 election over a young girl who had been kept waiting for a year for an operation to fix her glue ear. At the time, Labour thought the health service would swing the election at the end of 13 years of Conservative rule. It didn’t.

Of course, the state of the NHS can have an impact on how voters feel about a governing party. That’s why Conservatives who have been complaining internally about their government’s failure to meet the manifesto commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence have been given a riposte from those around chancellor Jeremy Hunt to the effect that defence doesn’t win elections, but the health service does. This kind of argument always winds up Conservative backbenchers, who point out that defence is one of the few areas where their party out-polls Labour.

Labour’s strategy this time around isn’t to make the NHS the centrepiece of its campaign, although it will clearly use it as a device in its wider argument that the Tories have broken public services. Instead, economic security and tight fiscal rules are more important than promising to turn the spending taps on right away. The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting , has had to think of more inventive ways of talking about the health service than merely promising lots of money to fix it, which will probably be to the NHS’s benefit, given it has structural problems that hold it back both in times of fat and thin.

But no matter how prominent the NHS is or isn’t in the general election campaign, the chances are that Streeting will then find himself in government trying to deliver the reforms he has been talking about.

Money is definitely not the only answer to the health service’s woes, but it is one of a number of solutions. Streeting has been clear that he wants to rebalance the way care is delivered so that it isn’t all focused on acute hospital services, but on preventive and primary care models. It’s hard to disagree with that notion, given it would lead to many people being seen before they are sick enough to need hospital treatment. But the implementation of it is a different matter because, unless Rachel Reeves unchains the public purse , there is not going to be enough money to fund both primary and acute care. Hospitals may have to close, which always causes huge ructions in local areas and tends to lead even quite sensible MPs to panic that they’ll lose their seat unless they campaign against the closures.

There may well come a point where Keir Starmer and Streeting, like Blair and Milburn in 2000, do want to turn on the spending taps. Starmer is highly unlikely to emulate the former Labour prime minister in ambushing Gordon Brown as chancellor and announcing spending increases live on breakfast TV . But there is a growing worry among some of those Labourites who were in government last time around that Reeves could be more like Brown than much of the hype around her acknowledges.

So the maximum point of danger for the NHS itself is not now, but after five years of a Labour government, which is closer than it has been for a long time. Milburn has a saying that, when it comes to the NHS, Labour has permission to reform, but lacks the volition, whereas the Tories have the volition to reform it, but lack the permission. After a campaign about broken services, the public will be expecting Labour to repeat its late 1990s/early 2000s repair job on the NHS. If, by the end of five years of government, there isn’t a strong sign that this rescue is underway and showing results, then the loss of confidence in the NHS could be catastrophic. It may well be that this is the point at which the support for the underlying principles of the service starts to mirror the trajectory of the satisfaction with service levels.

If Labour can’t fix it, then maybe the health service is properly broken for the present day and needs retiring. At the moment, there is still a belief among the public that higher taxes and spending could fix it. If that belief goes, then the whole experiment really could, after 75 years of people predicting it, start to fall apart.

• Wes Streeting
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Youth Gender Medications Limited in England, Part of Big Shift in Europe

Five European countries have recently restricted hormone treatments for adolescents with gender distress. They have not banned the care, unlike many U.S. states.

By Azeen Ghorayshi

Azeen Ghorayshi reports on transgender health and visited the world’s first youth gender clinic in Amsterdam this fall.

The National Health Service in England started restricting gender treatments for children this month, making it the fifth European country to limit the medications because of a lack of evidence of their benefits and concern about long-term harms.

England’s change resulted from a four-year review released Tuesday evening by Dr. Hilary Cass, an independent pediatrician. “For most young people, a medical pathway will not be the best way to manage their gender-related distress,” the report concluded. In a related editorial published in a medical journal, Dr. Cass said the evidence that youth gender treatments were beneficial was “built on shaky foundations.”

The N.H.S. will no longer offer drugs that block puberty , except for patients enrolled in clinical research. And the report recommended that hormones like testosterone and estrogen, which spur permanent physical changes, be prescribed to minors with “extreme caution.” (The guidelines do not apply to doctors in private practice, who serve a small fraction of the population.)

England’s move is part of a broader shift in northern Europe, where health officials have been concerned by soaring demand for adolescent gender treatments in recent years. Many patients also have mental health conditions that make it difficult to pinpoint the root cause of their distress, known as dysphoria.

In 2020, Finland’s health agency restricted the care by recommending psychotherapy as the primary treatment for adolescents with gender dysphoria. Two years later, Sweden restricted hormone treatments to “exceptional cases.”

In December, regional health authorities in Norway designated youth gender medicine as a “treatment under trial,” meaning hormones will be prescribed only to adolescents in clinical trials. And in Denmark, new guidelines being finalized this year will limit hormone treatments to transgender adolescents who have experienced dysphoria since early childhood.

Several transgender advocacy groups in Europe have condemned the changes , saying that they infringe on civil rights and exacerbate the problems of overstretched health systems. In England, around 5,800 children were on the waiting list for gender services at the end of 2023, according to the N.H.S.

“The waiting list is known to be hell,” said N., a 17-year-old transgender boy in southern England who requested to withhold his full name for privacy. He has been on the waiting list for five years, during which time he was diagnosed with autism and depression. “On top of the trans panic our own government is pushing, we feel forgotten and left behind,” he said.

In the United States, Republican politicians have cited the pullback in Europe to justify laws against youth gender medicine. But the European policies are notably different from the outright bans for adolescents passed in 22 U.S. states, some of which threaten doctors with prison time or investigate parents for child abuse. The European countries will still allow gender treatments for certain adolescents and are requiring new clinical trials to study and better understand their effects.

“We haven’t banned the treatment,” said Dr. Mette Ewers Haahr, a psychiatrist who leads Denmark’s sole youth gender clinic, in Copenhagen. Effective treatments must consider human rights and patient safety, she said. “You have to weigh both.”

In February, the European Academy of Paediatrics acknowledged the concerns about youth gender medicine. “The fundamental question of whether biomedical treatments (including hormone therapy) for gender dysphoria are effective remains contested,” the group wrote. In contrast, the American Academy of Pediatrics last summer reaffirmed its endorsement of the care, stating that hormonal treatments are essential and should be covered by health insurers, while also commissioning a systematic review of evidence.

Europeans pioneered the use of gender treatments for young people. In the 1990s, a clinic in Amsterdam began giving puberty-suppressing drugs to adolescents who had felt they were a different gender since early childhood.

The Dutch doctors reasoned that puberty blockers could give young patients with gender dysphoria time to explore their identity and decide whether to proceed with hormones to ultimately transition. For patients facing male puberty, the drugs would stave off the physical changes — such as a deeper voice and facial hair — that could make it more difficult for them to live as women in adulthood. The Dutch team’s research, which was first published in 2011 and tracked a carefully selected group of 70 adolescents, found that puberty blockers, in conjunction with therapy, improved psychological functioning.

That study was hugely influential, inspiring clinics around the world to follow the Dutch protocol. Referrals to these clinics began to surge around 2014, though the numbers remain small. At Sweden’s clinic, for example, referrals grew to 350 adolescents in 2022 from around 50 in 2014. In England, those numbers grew to 3,600 referrals in 2022 from 470 in 2014.

Clinics worldwide reported that the increase was largely driven by patients raised as girls. And unlike the participants in the original Dutch study, many of the new patients did not experience gender distress until puberty and had other mental health conditions, including depression and autism.

Given these changes, some clinicians are questioning the relevance of the original Dutch findings for today’s patients.

“The whole world is giving the treatment, to thousands, tens of thousands of young people, based on one study,” said Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, a psychiatrist who has led the youth gender program in Finland since 2011 and has become a vocal critic of the care.

Dr. Kaltiala’s own research found that about 80 percent of patients at the Finnish clinic were born female and began experiencing gender distress later in adolescence. Many patients also had psychological issues and were not helped by hormonal treatments, she found. In 2020, Finland severely limited use of the drugs.

Around the same time, the Swedish government commissioned a rigorous research review that found “insufficient” evidence for hormone therapies for youth. In 2022, Sweden recommended hormones only for “exceptional cases,” citing in part the uncertainty around how many young people may choose to stop or reverse their medical transitions down the line, known as detransitioning.

Even the original Dutch clinic is facing pressure to limit patients receiving the care. In December, a public documentary series in the Netherlands questioned the basis of the treatments. And in February, months after a far-right political party swept an election in a country long known as socially liberal , the Dutch Parliament passed a resolution to conduct research comparing the current Dutch approach with that of other European countries.

“I would have liked that the Netherlands was an island,” said Dr. Annelou de Vries, a psychiatrist who led the original Dutch research and still heads the Amsterdam clinic. “But of course, we are not — we are also part of the global world. So in a way, if everybody is starting to be concerned, of course, these concerns come also to our country.”

In England, brewing concerns about the surge of new patients reached a boiling point in 2018, when 10 clinicians at the N.H.S.’s sole youth gender clinic, known as the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service, formally complained that they felt pressure to quickly approve children, including those with serious mental health problems, for puberty blockers.

In 2021, Tavistock clinicians published a study of 44 children who took puberty blockers that showed a different result from the Dutch: The patients given the drugs, on average, saw no impact on psychological function.

Although the drugs did not lessen thoughts of self-harm or the severity of dysphoria, the adolescents were “resoundingly thrilled to be on the blocker,” Dr. Polly Carmichael, the head of the clinic, said at a 2016 conference . And 43 of the 44 study participants later chose to start testosterone or estrogen, raising questions about whether the drug was serving its intended purpose of giving adolescents time to consider whether a medical transition was right for them.

In 2020, the N.H.S. commissioned Dr. Cass to carry out an independent review of the treatments. She commissioned scientific reviews and considered international guidelines of the care. She also met with young people and their families, trans adults, people who had detransitioned, advocacy groups and clinicians.

The review concluded that the N.H.S.’s standard of care was inadequate, with long waiting lists for access to drug treatments and few routes to address the mental health concerns that may be contributing to gender distress. The N.H.S. shuttered the Tavistock center last month and opened two new youth gender clinics, which Dr. Cass said should have a “holistic” approach, with more support for those with autism, depression and eating disorders, as well as psychotherapy to help adolescents explore their identities.

“Children and young people have just been really poorly served,” Dr. Cass said in an interview with the editor of The British Medical Journal, released Tuesday. She added, “I can’t think of another area of pediatric care where we give young people potentially irreversible treatments and have no idea what happens to them in adulthood.”

The changes enacted by the N.H.S. this month are “an acknowledgment that our concerns were, in fact, valid,” said Anna Hutchinson, a clinical psychologist in London who was one of the Tavistock staff members who raised concerns in 2018. “It’s reassuring that we’re going to return to a more robust, evidence-based pathway for decisions relating to these children.”

Some critics said that Europe, like the United States, had also been influenced by a growing backlash against transgender people.

In Britain, for example, a yearslong fight over a proposed law that would have made it easier for transgender people to change the gender on their identification documents galvanized a political movement to try to exclude transgender women from women’s sports, prisons and domestic violence shelters.

“The intention with the Cass review is to be neutral, but I think that neutral has maybe moved,” said Laurence Webb, a representative from Mermaids, a trans youth advocacy organization in Britain. “Extremist views have become much more normalized.”

Other countries have seen more overt attacks on transgender rights and health care. In 2020, Hungary’s Parliament passed a law banning gender identity changes on legal documents. Last year, Russia banned legal gender changes as well as gender-related medical care, with one lawmaker describing gender surgeries as the “path to the degeneration of the nation.”

In France this year, a group of conservative legislators introduced a bill to ban doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormones, with punishments of two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 euros, or about $32,600. And on Monday, the Vatican condemned gender transitions as threats to human dignity.

Azeen Ghorayshi covers the intersection of sex, gender and science for The Times. More about Azeen Ghorayshi