BMA UK Council Elections 2022 - Manifestos

The pandemic rolls on, inflation is rising, the NHS is crumbling, training is a travesty. We need a strong trade union now.

We believe:

  • The BMA has the potential to be a fighting trade union that wins material change

  • Doctors deserve to have their pay fully restored

  • Medical students and junior doctors deserve free education, training and exams

  • Students and doctors deserve secure employment - jobs for all, massive improvements to recruitment needed

  • Doctors deserve excellent working conditions and pensions at retirement

  • Students and doctors deserve equity at work and in the BMA. We stand against sexism, ageism, ableism, weight discrimination, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, racism, religious discrimination and discrimination on grounds of caring responsibilities. These are workplace struggles as well as societal struggles.

  • We can achieve more by working together, which is why we are running on a shared platform

We will:

  • Support industrial action for full pay restoration and pension reform across the profession

  • Support training for reps and a workplace-based organising strategy, to achieve improvements to working conditions

  • Support action by individual branches of practice on contractual issues and mistreatment by the government

  • Use the wins from other successful trade unions to inform the BMA’s strategy - which will be bold, unapologetic and ambitious

  • Publish our own reports of Council meetings

  • Support publication of voting records, minutes from council meetings and recordings of meetings

We won’t:

  • Ask members to complete endless surveys instead of taking action

  • Use our positions for self-promotion, plaudits or selling-out

Statements

Emma Runswick

Junior Doctor, Psychiatry, Greater Manchester

Current Roles: BMA Council, BMA Junior Doctors Committee, BMA North West Regional Junior Doctors Committee Chair

Trade Unionist. LGBTQ+ Campaigner. I want improved local rep support and a proactive, democratic and transparent BMA. For a fighting union. For pay and pension restoration. Unashamedly socialist.

Our union must engage with and mobilise members on pay, working conditions, training, safety, and pensions. We’re being robbed by inflation and state pension changes. We need to build for industrial action if we want to win real change. I push for better resources and training for local reps so we can organise to defend our interests. I have an excellent record as a local rep including resisting unsafe redeployment, winning payouts for covid rotas and breaches of contract. Nationally, I apply high scrutiny to BMA Council and JDC papers. Prudent with your money. In my current Council term, I called out spousal expenses and Lock Club dinners, and pushed through new rules preventing some Branches of Practice overruling and threatening others.

I will continue to report details of Council meetings online, including my votes, so you can hold me to account.

Becky Acres

Junior Doctor, Acute Medicine, Leicester

Current Roles: BMA East Midlands Regional Council Chair, East Midlands Regional Junior Doctors Committee Deputy Chair, UKJDC, Local rep, BMA Organisation Committee

A BMA that fights for Fair Pay and Pensions. Good Governance and Scrutiny. Solidarity between the Branches of Practice and all four nations.

Pay erosion for Doctors mirrors pay erosion throughout society: It is not good enough.

I believe there is something drastically rotten in Doctor’s terms and conditions and in the funding of our NHS. We need fair pay for doctors (i.e a significant pay rise), truly progressive and not punitive taxation and to stop the theft from pensions (which are our deferred income).

Meanwhile Training must be everyone’s priority and the whole service needs funding at the same level as other wealthy economies.

I believe in a BMA that fights for members with high levels of internal governance and scrutiny. Solidarity cannot be optional. My work on Organisation Committee, Regional and National Junior Doctors’ Committee and as East Midlands Regional Council Chair hopefully speaks to my commitment to these principles.

Kayode Oki

Medical Student, Scotland, about to be F1, London

Current roles: BMA Medical Students Committee Deputy Chair for Education

Full pay restoration, protect our pensions, increase transparency and accountability. Empower the junior members of our union. Socialist Professional Troublemaker with a forensic eye for detail.

We deserve a union that encourages and empowers even its most junior members. I believe in more pan-branch-of-practice working groups to ensure our policies are closely aligned and no member is left behind.

As a medical student representative, I demonstrated the importance of speaking truth to power and delivered consistent wins locally. I fought against the redeployment of medical students to act as unpaid FYs in COVID wards, ensured that there were safeguards for students who miss assessments because of COVID and helped students navigate the appeals process. As deputy chair for Education, I have proven to be adept in managing multiple ongoing crises. 

We need to work to raise our expectations on what are acceptable conditions for doctors. Better pay. Better working conditions. Adequate rest facilities. Vote for a council that keeps you in the loop and stays accountable.

Shohaib Ali

Junior Doctor, Foundation Training, London

Current Roles: Local Rep

We deserve a BMA that works for us. We deserve a BMA that fights for our working rights. We deserve a BMA that keeps our NHS free for all.

Years into the pandemic; in a system broken by government cuts; a reframing of what the BMA stands for is necessary.

A BMA that works for us: representatives who are accountable to the members we serve for the actions we take and transparent in our decision making

A BMA that fights for our working rights: The BMA needs to build an industrial strategy and to be prepared to take industrial action to win working rights and pay for doctors.

A BMA that keeps our NHS free for all: Our NHS was a gift from the wartime generation, it is important to me that I can provide care for all, not just the wealthy. However, the service cannot be built on the backs of poverty wages and poor conditions for staff.

Joanna Sutton Klein

Junior Doctor, Emergency Medicine, Sheffield

Current Roles: BMA Junior Doctors Conference Deputy Chair, Local Rep

We can win full pay restoration by taking industrial action. The BMA should be a fighting trade union that takes industrial action and rejects real-terms pay cuts! #StrikesNotSurveys #IAForFairPay #VoteBroadLeft

Doctors have faced a 25% real-terms pay cut since 2008 and a serious decline in working conditions. The BMA has failed to stand-up for us. I want the BMA to be a fighting trade union that wins full pay restoration and will never again accept pay cuts.

I support

  1. Taking industrial action for full pay restoration. This is the only way we can win back our pay

  2. Publicly streaming council meetings and making the minutes/voting records publicly available

  3. Reinvigorating local BMA branches to take on local disputes when hospital managers are exploiting doctors

I won’t

  1. Settle for anything less than full pay restoration

  2. Send out endless surveys

  3. Sell-out to careerism or become complacent

Vote for other Broad Left and Doctors Vote candidates. We’re going to work together to transform the BMA into a fighting union that wins full pay restoration!

#StrikesNotSurveys #IAForFairPay #FullPayRestoration #DoctorsVote

Becky Bates

Medical Student, South West, about to be F1 East Midlands

Current Roles: BMA Professional Regulation Committee Deputy Chair

Trade unionist committed to representing ALL of our profession. Proven record empowering marginalised groups. Fighting for fair treatment and fair remuneration. Committed to transparency, accountability, and deeds not words.

I’m dedicated to empowering our members in the face of eroding pay, burnout, and inequality.

My Medical Student Committee record includes work protecting doctors graduating early, safeguarding education during COVID, challenging disability discrimination in recruitment, and improving communication with members.

I've supported implementation of committee equality champions and our charter against racial harassment, organised a regional conference for medics (like myself) with disabilities, long-term conditions, and neurodivergence, and am now working with staff to build a BMA "DLN" network.

On Professional Regulation Committee I’ve worked to tackle discrimination in regulatory processes and challenged the GMC over their social media conduct and response to malicious complaints, spotlighted by #IAmPhilipLee.

I also authored the BMA’s first policy aimed at ensuring safety, not punishment, for medics engaging in sex work to survive.

Vassili Crispi

Junior Doctor, Foundation Training, Yorkshire

Current Roles: BMA Yorkshire Regional Junior Doctors Committee, Local Rep

Trade unionist, LGBTQ+, campaigner for equality in surgery. I want a BMA that truly represents our doctors and their diversity. For pay restoration. We deserve a fighting union!

No more empty promises or headlines. Our union must campaign to deliver support to all its members, full pay restoration, equality in opportunities and outcome, and safe working conditions. I will demand better resources for local reps, equality and bystander training for all members, and awareness campaigns on current issues. 

I have an excellent national record on Medical Students Committee, including changes to SJT policy and UKFP recruitment following the 2021 disasters, and at ARM supporting the motion on banning LGBT conversion therapies. Currently on Yorkshire JDC and Bradford LNC, fighting for better pay, protection for long-term locum, and safe rotas and working conditions. 

As an aspiring surgeon, I will demand free or reimbursed training opportunities, guaranteed consultant posts, and concrete actions against discrimination and harassment.

Marguerite O'Riordan

Medical Student, Birmingham

Current Roles: Medical Students Committee Executive, Local Rep

Students are the future of our NHS and should form an integral part of the BMA. I will enable and empower students to facilitate change, ensuring our voice is valued.

I was grateful to work on a broad range of issues on the BMA MSC Executive Committee this year. I hope to continue working on such issues, whilst also facilitating medical students to be heard, and make a meaningful impact. I worked on actioning a motion seeking to improve opportunities students from widening participation backgrounds experience, as I believe our workforce should be representative of society. Students should have a significant say on how their curriculum is delivered. Accordingly, I worked alongside the faculty of digital health to promote telemedicine in our curriculum. As an ambassador for “YouOkayDoc” I hope to promote and prioritise well-being amongst students. We live in a globalised, interconnected, world. I’m keen to empower medics in the UK to engage in tackling disparities in access to healthcare globally, having collaborated with UAEM. Most importantly, I seek to enable and empower students to make a positive difference.