The Independent's Rebecca Thomas wins prestigious award for health journalism

The Independent's health correspondent Rebecca Thomas has been named the best health journalist in the British Journalism Awards, and commended for the “huge impact” of her work.

- STAFF REPORTERS

Ms Thomas’s work revealed the scandal of rape and sexual assault of patients within NHS mental health trusts, a “culture of fear” allowing nurses to abuse their patients, and the case of an autistic man who was repeatedly locked up in dementia care units and abused by nurses.

Judges at the prestigious awards named Ms Thomas the winner of the Health and Life Sciences category, describing her work as “three significant examples of dogged journalism which had a huge impact”. Ms Thomas said: “I’m honoured to win this award, thank you to all of the patients and sources who shared their stories, we could not report without you, and thank you to the journalists I collaborated with and the editors who backed me.”