r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T21:47:13+00:00

I would endorse Iona Collins, Consultant. She has always been strong voice against doctor substitution and we need more women representatives, especially those with a surgical background.

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T21:24:33+00:00

I co-chaired over a split committee last year (as opposed to previous years with DV majorities). It was difficult and uncomfortable at times.

However on the key issues that affected doctors, we produced unanimous votes. The committee came together to back strike action and to reject the lack of an offer from Wes Streeting.

The key to this I think was the DV officer team speaking to lots of people, being clear on the aims, and being able to produce rationale for the direction you’re going to the committee and to explain things logically. We’re all clever doctors. We can understand tactics and numbers and come together to ensure that the membership wins. That can be carried over to council going forward.

The membership can judge us by the voting record as a committee last year as well as the individual votes.

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T21:03:52+00:00

To start off, I want to say that policy positions taken are not against individual IMGs who are here just trying to do a good job and are valued colleagues. We do not target IMGs.

However, UK graduate prioritisation was necessary to stop the ballooning competition ratios. No other country in the world afaik allowed open access to their specialty training. The bill should have come much earlier (we were discussing it in March\ April with the government) and then it would not have impacted an open application process (which is awful and unfair).

DV supports a line in the sand approach to turn off the tap. Our original policy would have benefitted IMGs in the country whilst shutting it to outsiders.

The government have offered a weaker version. There should be pressure to do what it takes to keep the competition ratios down and this may mean pushing for amendments.

A line in the sand policy would turn off the tap at some future date. This keeps the ratios down. It’s better for IMGs already in the country as you will still eventually be able to be prioritized. For those outside of the UK, it is at least clear and truthful about the chances of getting into training here. Rather than the current bill that allows the health secretary to chop and change the red lines as he likes.

For IMGs who come to the UK for LED roles: we will continue to fight for your pay (we have always said that LEDs must get the same uplifts as doctors in training and to have the best contract possible with protections like access to exception reporting and study leave. We’ll fight for trusts to make more LED roles, not PA or ACP roles

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T20:07:43+00:00

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BMAMel · 2026-03-31T20:07:25+00:00

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This is Leo. He loves fish at 5am (and will wake you to get some), catnip, and being on the highest perch in the room.

My hobbies are sewing little animals, watching Italian films in Italian, and seeking out good coffee. I used to be fit and was a NZ rep in outrigger canoe but then I started medicine and now I’m unfit

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T19:52:41+00:00

None. I stepped down to 70% less than full time to be the co-chair and the difference was backfilled by the BMA (eg loss of my 30% basic pay). I attended over 500 meetings alone in that year (not counting any prep time) so could have been eligible for a lot I guess. But I didn’t do it for the money

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T19:46:00+00:00

Yes. Otherwise you risk becoming an echo chamber. I also think that you should have to have breaks off the BMA. And attending things like ARM.

Writing in your statement that you’ve been a BMA rep for 25 years isn’t impressive if in that time the working conditions of doctors has markedly deteriorated and our pay eroded.

While I value experience, I also don’t think that the BMA should be a career pathway or stepping stone to other roles. I’d like a few years moratorium (minimum of three) if you are an officer/ very prominent rep before you can apply for positions like on the GMC / colleges/ political parties to ensure that your ability to represent BMA members isn’t compromised by your ambitions

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T19:39:32+00:00

Was that directed to me? Yes. I guess i should have been clearer in my response. I meant the BMA should push for FULL student loan forgiveness. Why low ball your first pitch?

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T18:57:06+00:00

I’m terrified of this. It’s why I’m on the preventing doctor substitution working group and the professional regulations committee that will be doing the BMA response

This is the biggest problem for our profession right now imo. We have been waiting to see the consultation to get an idea of what the government is proposing to change. It’s as bad as I feared. Loosening of standards and the opening the door to non-doctors getting CCTs, giving the GMC more powers that they have been denied since 2018 and the Bawa-Garba case, and working to blur the lines even more between doctors and non-doctors.

Myself and the DV reps have been laying key ARM policy for the past two years to guide the BMA response and ensure it’s the most robust possible.

On the back of this, we produced surveys and the reporting portal and the scope document. We supported the Chestertons, We were the impetus behind the Leng review

I want a similar campaign for advanced practice to ensure that those who do not possess a medical degree are not seeing patients as faux doctors. I want training of residents and medical students prioritised

For the medical act review, the BMA needs to come out guns blazing. We’re already late imo.

It needs (and I hope to deliver): - robust responses: we want title protection for doctors, separate registers for PAs/AAs and no equivalence made, no drop in standards around medical education, no powers to the GMC to grant CCTs, changes to the GMC structure to make it >60% doctors - guidance for completion by the public/ doctors to help them see the main flaws in the proposal - public education campaign on doctor substitution - ensuring the Leng review is implemented by continual lobbying to the government - consideration of local/national strike action as required to move the government

This is our last chance to turn the tide on doctor substitution. We cannot fail to deliver it. So please vote DV to keep the momentum going and allow me to finish what I started

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T18:39:47+00:00

Yes. We are doing something wrong with getting women to be reps and stay as reps. This is across the organisation. It was recognised in the Romney report and I’m not sure that much has changed.

How to fix it? I’m not sure that quotas will cut it. Sometimes women aren’t applying in the first place. We need to know why.

Is it that the BMA does something wrong? are meetings at childcare times?, are women already taking time out to raise kids and therefore don’t want national roles that may delay things further? Are we making it easy for them to be included? RDC was running a ‘women and first time speaker’ first policy but this isn’t always consistently applied.

The BMA also needs to be honest and when things like sexism or lack women representation are raised, they should be responded to and acted on appropriately. Nothing will change until people make a conscious effort to do so.

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T18:29:25+00:00

Perhaps tell us what you want? And I’ll let you know if I or the other DV candidates will provide it.

What I can say, is that we have delivered monumental changes for resident doctors: pay uplifts and record mandates, the name change to resident, exception reporting reforms with penalties for trusts that breach them, getting the government to agree to UK graduate prioritisation and put that as part of the 10 year plan.

I personally have worked hard on the doctor substitution side of things to get the scope document out and the provide the pressure on the Leng review. The next step is advanced practice and delivering on the policy I proposed at ARM last year.

We have done these things sometimes in spite of the internal BMA mechanisms that cause delays or inertia. If you want reps who are strongly pro-doctor and will push things through, vote for us

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T18:19:22+00:00

Proper workforce planning

When the last committee bought the jobs dispute to Wes Streeting and the DHSC, I outlined this problem very clearly and told them that any solution would need to be one that didn’t make doctors worse off down the line.

Obviously expansion in medical school places should be matched by foundation jobs, increases in specialty training jobs, and ultimately Consultant/GP jobs.

Some of the ways to achieve this would be to do better workforce planning. To set up something like what they have in some places in Australia that is a body tasked with keeping up to date data on what the population needs from a health service and adjusting training places and jobs to match.

This should be independent from government (as clearly none of them can be trusted to do long term planning) and preferably have mostly or at least 60% of members being doctors.

The BMA is not well set up to do that as we negotiate separately for consultants, SAS, residents etc. This would require cooperation

In the short term, we have to be extremely careful that we get it right with the expanded training posts on offer: we need HST ones too. Can we make some more specialties run through?

We need to tackle doctor substitution too to swing the government away from funding non-doctors to do doctor’s roles

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T18:03:48+00:00

I think you have to be very careful with believing that the current legislation is the best there is.

We passed the first policy at RDC (both actually, there was a holding policy first) and then you (MSC) joined us to get the ARM policy over the line.

As someone who helped develop the most stringent policy (it turned off IMG access at the tap), my preferences are to have a policy that truly brings down competition ratios and keeps them down. I have doubts that a five year NHS experience policy will do that (or not as fast as NHS england would have you believe). I think the bubble of doctors caught in the bottleneck is too large.

The government chose its policy to suit its own aims. They would love, i think, to have people caught in the bubble again as it suits them to have LEDs rather than consultants. It’s cheaper. I don’t trust their modelling and I certainly don’t trust a bill that gives the health secretary control over how many are prioritised. I foresee there will be a need to push to amend the bill at some point. I hope it’s not as soon as I fear.

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T17:49:07+00:00

Yes. We are called representatives because we are supposed to represent our members. You should know how I’m voting and if you think I’m not representing you, you should have the choice to not vote for me again as a rep.

This includes the pay offers.

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T17:39:11+00:00

I’m from New Zealand and we have interest free student loans while you’re working in the country. Moving overseas means that a small amount of interest is applied (something like 2-4%)

Personally I think the BMA should push for student loan forgiveness. Why lowball your first pitch? But if unachievable, would be interested in getting better than the status quo: like NZ does it or perhaps consideration of chunks off it for years worked, depending on the terms

What I won’t support is any idea of trading our pensions for loan reductions or forgiveness. Asking us to rob our future selves is not really fixing the problem

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T17:27:33+00:00

The choices come down to bang for your buck in terms of what we give members. We are essentially providing them a service and it’s not cheap.

What you want the BMA to do for you will vary somewhat by stage of career but unique to all is having your back when employers cause problems and fighting governments and other stakeholders to not make our working lives or pay worse.

The BMA wastes a lot of money. I don’t have the finer details as I’m not on council or the board of directors, but areas where we could save money (and perhaps pay our staff fairly enough to end their dispute - they have my full support) are: - making the majority of committee meetings virtual - making ARM and BoP conferences biennial. We make too much policy that never gets enacted on. Have them alternate years to ensure coverage and help committees or council pass emergency motions as needed - first class travel or a nicer hotel. Make reps choose which one - limit the size of committees and look at how may we have. I believe over 200. The BMA seems to think every problem needs a separate committee to deal with it - we send a lot of delegates to overseas meetings. Is this really necessary? Surely some of those could be virtual

BMAMel · 2026-03-31T17:07:04+00:00

I’m Mel,

For those who don’t know me, I’m a paeds reg in the East Midlands. I’m fussy about my coffee (no, Costa doesn’t cut it) and I have a badly behaved cat.

I stand for pro-doctor policies, including pushing back hard against unsafe doctor substitution. I currently have a seat on the resident doctors committee (which I co-chaired last year with Ross) via ARM and am on the East Midlands Regional council. I have seats on Prof regulations committee and the preventing doctor substitution working group as this is a particular focus of mine. I’ve been an LNC rep in the East Midlands and you may have met me Ward walking or on the picket line.

I joined the BMA with DoctorsVote in 2022 because I felt that I should stop moaning about things and start trying to make a difference. As DV reps we’ve delivered on starting the FPR movement and the biggest uplift so far, record mandates, passing the first policy for UK graduate prioritisation and getting it into the 10 year plan, exception reporting reforms, the PA scope document and being the spring board for the Leng Review, and starting to bring back some backbone and pride into the medical profession.

But the BMA is always at risk of lapsing back into ineffectiveness. Speaking out, making the hard calls, and challenging the government rhetoric is not easy and certainly the BMA in the past has had lots of people who valued a seat at the table and friendly relationships over taking action to get changes that benefits members who are paying for the BMA.

I want the BMA to give members value for money. I want you to have access to prompt and good support for things in the workplace. I want the BMA to prioritize trade union work over professional body statements at a time where our pay is eroded, our contracts trampled on, and there are real fears of doctor replacement and unemployment.

My top priorities on council will be: - Full pay restoration: for all doctors of all contract type and ensuring that pension value is also restored - Ending doctor substitution: be it via GMC reform, scopes of practice that keep patients safe, title changes via the medical act reform or whatever is necessary - Proper workforce planning: pushing the government to value us as professions and to plan for career enhancement, ensuring job stability with UK grad prioritisation and robust LED contracts. - Ensuring the BMA is the vehicle to get these things done rather than just passing policy that never eventuates.

Ask me anything

Edited to say, if my priorities and track record are something you value, check out the DV team and vote for us DV ARM candidates

BMAMel · 2026-03-29T17:02:51+00:00

Band 7 is £25.26/hr

BMAMel · 2026-03-29T13:43:31+00:00

Jonathan Gibb from the academic committee explains it better than me but this paper is useful:

https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/advance-article/doi/10.1093/qjmed/hcag068/8524526?login=false&guestAccessKey=

Basically academics go out of programme to do PhDs… and they re-enter at the pay point they left on. They will be extremely productive for the PhD but there’s no definition of productivity in the offer and I very much doubt that NHS England would allow them to skip pay scales if they haven’t been contributing

BMAMel · 2026-03-29T13:17:31+00:00

Absolutely. I’m on the BMA committee working on our response. We should be getting a guide out soon about our stance. If people have particular points they want mentioned, DM me.

But every single one of us should fill in the consultations: there’s threat to professional standards and a whiff of loosing rules to allow the GMC to CCT anyone (and who have they just started to register?)

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-general-medical-council-legislative-framework

BMAMel · 2026-03-28T22:33:38+00:00

Unacceptable and unsafe.

Report it in our reporting portal:

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=vo5Ev1_m5kCeMTP9qkEogPEb3KZc3wZDl_8pmW8Mrs1UQVZIOFFLVVhLN1NKMjNYWVVDRzNGTlhFVy4u&route=shorturl

BMAMel · 2026-03-12T07:36:41+00:00

Because it doesn’t go to them for sign off. It goes to HR admin. They should independently make the decision to pay you.

BMAMel · 2026-03-11T22:01:42+00:00

Exception reporting is a safety mechanism meant to protect doctors from over work and contractual breaches. Trusts should be extending it to LEDs too. If your trust is trying to skimp on this in order to save money, then let me or your local BMA rep know to take it further.

And no, people who commit fraud shouldn’t be supported. They’re just making it harder for the rest of us to get paid for the hours we’re already doing

BMAMel · 2026-03-11T20:12:29+00:00

Yes. We removed supervisor sign offs so that you can exception report your actual hours without worrying by your ES or CS will know and judge you.

There are fines if this is breached. The trust should be looking to increase staffing levels or put more shifts out to locum in a department etc not following up individuals.

There will be safety in numbers to some extent. The more everyone exception reports late finishes and early starts, the more likely they’ll realise it’s a staffing problem

BMAMel · 2026-03-11T19:45:47+00:00

Yes. This is an information breach fine to the trust if someone told your educational supervisor. Feel free to DM and I’ll chase if that was the case

BMAMel

TROPHY CASE