The Independent’s Rebecca Thomas named health journalist of the year in the Press Awards 2025 – UK Times

The Independent correspondent Rebecca Thomas has been named health journalist of the year at the Press Awards 2025.

Ms Thomas’s work exposed a case of an autistic man who had been trapped in dementia care units and A&E wards for 10 years, a “culture of fear” that allowed nurses to abuse their patients and a scandal of sexual assault of patients within NHS mental health trusts.

Judges praised her “forensic research” and “impressive track record in effecting change for both vulnerable people and the public at large”.

Ms Thomas’s work “empowers those who would otherwise be ignored”, and “sheds a light on abuse and neglect by those in positions of power at some of our most trusted institutions”, the judges said.

Ms Thomas said: “I am very honoured and humbled to have received this award, thank you to the brave patients and sources who came forward and for the Indy editors who helped me share their stories.”

It comes after Ms Thomas won at the British Journalism Awards in the health and life sciences category in December 2024.

Ms Thomas also won the Medical Journalists’ Association (MJA) mental health story of the year for her 18-month investigation into sexual abuse in NHS hospitals.

Nearly 20,000 reports of rape and sexual assault of patients were made across half of NHS mental health trusts. This was exposed by The Independent in conjunction with Sky News in a joint investigation and podcast.

The investigation prompted former victims’ commissioner Dame Vera Baird to describe the NHS abuse as a “national scandal”, with Wes Streeting calling it a “wake-up call” for the government while he was shadow health secretary. Rape Crisis England and Wales called for a public inquiry.

Ms Thomas was also nominated for the Private Eye Paul Foot Award for investigative and campaigning journalism for the same investigation earlier this year. Private Eye said her “dogged campaign exposed systemic patient safety scandals within the UK’s ailing mental health system”.

Meanwhile, she investigated the case of an autistic man trapped in dementia care units and A&E wards, where he suffered abuse by nurses over a 10-year period.

Ms Thomas’s reporting helped the man leave after years of being trapped in mental health institutions. He has moved into his own home and has now regained the power of speech.

Ms Thomas previously won in the health and life sciences category in the British Journalism Awards in 2022, when she was recognised for her “revelatory” coverage of a crisis in A&E units.