2,000-signature petition calls for GMC to reverse suspensions of climate activist doctors

Supporters of climate activist doctors Diana Warner and Sarah Benn gathered outside the GMC’s London offices to urge the regulator to overturn its decision to suspend the two GPs.

The letter, which has 2,000 signatories including about 500 doctors, was handed into the regulator on Thursday afternoon (24 October) as the United Nations’ environment programme said it is ‘crunch time for real’ in terms of cutting fossil fuel emissions.

It says: ‘We call on the GMC to reverse these suspensions and to show its support for those who have sacrificed their freedom in calling for the ‘deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions’ which (according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) are humanity’s last hope.’

Notable signatories include fellows of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the British Academy. Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, and Dr Marina Romanello, executive director of The Lancet Countdown, also signed the letter.

Dr Benn was suspended for five months after a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing found her activism amounted to misconduct because it led to her breaching a court order. She breached an injunction by sitting in the road and holding a placard by an oil terminal, in protest at its continued burning of fossil fuels. Her appeal is being supported by the BMA.

Dr Warner was suspended for three months after her tribunal, which followed her conviction for disrupting traffic on the M25 motorway as part of direct action for campaign group Insulate Britain.

GMC rules stipulate that all convictions resulting in a custodial sentence are directly referred to a medical practitioners tribunal. The regulator says this is its responsibility under law and it 'can’t exercise any discretion over this'.

Neither tribunal found any clinical concerns but lawyers for the GMC argued that the doctors’ actions brought the medical profession into disrepute.

The regulator says its fitness to practise investigations consider referred cases where doctors have broken the law, ‘not their motivations for doing so’. It says: ‘It is not the role of regulators to determine UK law – that is a matter for parliament.’

Its Good Medical Practice guidance says ‘we don’t wish to prevent doctors from practising in line with their beliefs and values’.

The GPs, who have both retired from clinical practice, argue that the climate emergency – which the UK government recognised in 2019 - is also a public health crisis, so they have a moral duty to act.

They also say that the GMC should consider the context of their action when considering any reputational damage to the medical profession and note that a majority of the public support action on the climate crisis.

And they say that history proves that non-violent civil disobedience is an effective driver of change, from challenging women's suffrage and apartheid to big tobacco. 

Speaking to The Doctor outside the GMC offices on Thursday, Dr Warner said: ‘For me it’s a clear ethical, moral decision.

Of the support she has received, Dr Warner said: ‘It’s really heartening. I almost can’t believe it.

‘People are starting to understand doctors’ direct health responsibility [to raise concerns about climate change] and it’s such a relief that I’m here with so many other people now.

Dr Warner has also been staging a sit-in protest in the reception area of the GMC’s London offices, holding placards saying: ‘The GMC’s over-arching duty is to protect the public.’

She says: ‘As I’m sitting in the GMC, from the second day onwards – when people start to understand what I’m doing and what I mean – they start to say, “oh yeah, that’s true”. And this isn’t only health professionals or GMC related people, it’s other people as well.

‘Of course it's a doctor's responsibility to protect public health.’

Jason Scott-Warren, a member of the public who submitted the letter, urged the GMC to reverse the outcomes of the tribunals in a speech outside the regulator’s offices.

He said reading news of the doctors' suspensions ‘made me really upset and angry’, and they he felt the sanctions were akin to ‘shooting the messenger’.

To the GMC, he said: ‘Put yourself on the right side of history, show us that you care.’

Kathy Fallon, a retired doctor speaking in support of Drs Benn and Warner, said: ‘Both acted altruistically for the benefit of all of us.

‘I would feel privileged to have one of them as my doctor. Drs Benn and Warner are leading and trusted voices, and I thank them.’

The BMA has said that the suspensions for actions resulting from peaceful activism that ‘posed no threat to patients’ send a ‘worrying message’.

The GMC said it would respond to the letter from Health for Extinction Rebellion ‘in due course’.

A spokesman for the regulator said: ‘Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing us all, particularly given the serious threat a changing climate poses to human health and wellbeing, and we are committed to doing what we can to tackle climate change. But it is not our role to determine whether UK law as regards climate change protests needs to change – that is a matter for Parliament.

He added: ‘Doctors, like all citizens, have the right to express their personal opinions on issues, including climate change. There is nothing in our guidance to prevent them from doing so, nor from exercising their right to lobby government and to campaign - this includes taking part in protests.

‘However, when doctors’ protesting results in law-breaking, they must understand that it is their actions in breaking the law, rather than their motivations, that will be under scrutiny.

‘Patients and the public have a high degree of trust in doctors, that trust can be put at risk when doctors fail to comply with the law.’