Hundreds of health workers have called on the General Medical Council to stop suspending doctors jailed for peaceful climate activism, ahead of a trial that could mark the first jail term of a working GP for a non-violent climate protest in Britain.
Two retired GPs have been suspended this year by tribunals convened by the GMC after receiving short sentences for non-violent offenses during the Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain protests in 2021 and 2022. The medical regulator raised no concerns about clinical capabilities of doctors, but said their actions undermined public confidence in the profession.
Their treatment angered many medics, with the British Medical Association describing one suspension as ‘malicious’ and claiming the GMC had set a ‘dangerous precedent’.
An open letter objecting to the GMC’s crackdown was delivered last week, signed by 464 GPs, hospital doctors, consultants and nurses, as well as public figures including Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. to the regulator’s London offices. The letter claims that healthcare professionals have “turned to civil disobedience as a way to bring about change” because “billions of lives are endangered by rising global temperatures.” It calls on the GMC to reverse the suspensions and “demonstrate its support for those who have sacrificed their freedom by calling for a deep, rapid and sustainable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that are… humanity’s last hope ”.
Next week, Patrick Hart, a GP from Bristol, is due to stand trial for criminal damage. He is accused of damaging fuel pump displays at an M25 petrol station during a protest in August 2022. If convicted and jailed, he would be the first working doctor in Britain to be jailed for a non-violent act violation during a peaceful climate protest.
Hart will also face a tribunal convened by the GMC next year, where he could be suspended or deported. The UN Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders, Michel Forst, has raised his situation with the British government.
In an exchange published last week, Forst demands that the British government investigate Hart’s alleged punishment, prosecution or intimidation for peaceful civil disobedience, which has been used by women’s rights, anti-apartheid, anti-poll tax, LGBTQ+ and black civil rights activists. . He says the GMC “Dr. Hart seems to be subjecting him to a double punishment for his peaceful climate activism.”
In her response, Mary Creagh, the Minister of Nature, refused to investigate the UN’s concerns. She stated that there is “no right to civil disobedience”, adding that British laws allow for “legitimate environmental protests and public engagement”. So far, only retired general practitioners have had their medical licenses revoked by tribunals. Diana Warner, who had been a GP in Bristol for 35 years, had her driving license revoked for three months in August.
She was jailed for six weeks for twice breaching private anti-protest bans in 2021 and 2022 that ban people from blocking traffic on the M25.
The GMC’s lawyer argued that her actions could “justifiably be described as deplorable… and that she had brought the medical profession into disrepute”.
Sarah Benn, a retired GP in Birmingham, had her driving license suspended for five months in April. She was jailed for 32 days for breaching another private order in 2022 by protesting on a grass verge and sitting on a private road near the Kingsbury oil terminal. Benn will appeal against her suspension with the support of BMA.
The GMC said if a doctor is given a custodial sentence following a criminal conviction, he must refer the case to a doctors’ tribunal. “This is required by law and we cannot exercise any discretion in this regard,” a spokesperson said.
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Doctors had the right to express their personal views on issues including climate change, the GMC said.
“However, when doctors’ protest turns into breaking the law, they must understand that it is their actions in breaking the law, not their motivations, that will be scrutinized,” the spokesperson said.
“Patients and the public have a high degree of trust in physicians, and that trust could be jeopardized if physicians fail to comply with the law.”