Doctors, Climate Activism, and the GMC: Navigating Ethical Conflicts and Public Trust

Doctors, Climate Activism, and the GMC Navigating Ethical Conflicts and Public Trust
Credit: fitnesstopractisenews.co.uk

The General Medical Council (GMC) has issued new guidance in response to the growing number of doctors who have been or may be, convicted for actions related to the climate and ecological crisis. A key motivation for this guidance is the strong support many doctors and members of the public express for those taking such actions. The British Medical Association’s (BMA) Annual Representative Meeting passed a motion advocating for doctors’ right to engage in activism, calling for protections to prevent doctors from being struck off or dismissed for their involvement in activism. The GMC risks aligning itself with the wrong side of history on this issue.

While we acknowledge that the GMC’s primary responsibility is to protect the public by ensuring that doctors are fit to practise, we recognize that it operates under the authority of Parliament and is limited in what it can do.

We raise the following points and questions regarding the GMC’s guidance:

  1. The case studies presented by the GMC suggest that a doctor can be convicted of a criminal offense without necessarily being referred to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.
  2. The GMC places importance on maintaining the public’s confidence in the medical profession, but how does it gauge this confidence? Most of the British public is concerned about the climate and ecological crisis, with many feeling that the government’s response has been insufficient. In this context, might doctors convicted for climate-related actions actually increase public trust in the profession rather than diminish it?
  3. The GMC states that it “can’t take a view on the merits of specific causes.” Is this a legal constraint? Why is it that the GMC cannot acknowledge the climate and ecological crisis as a major threat to global health, as recognized by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? It seems unreasonable that the GMC cannot make this recognition.
  4. The guidance does not appear to acknowledge the inherent conflicts in a doctor’s duties. Doctors are expected to safeguard public health, which activists argue is the very reason they engage in actions that may result in criminal convictions. Can the GMC account for these conflicts when determining the appropriate response to doctors who have been convicted?

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Beth Malcolm

Beth Malcolm is Scottish based Journalist at Heriot-Watt University studying French and British Sign Language. She is originally from the north west of England but is living in Edinburgh to complete her studies.