29th March 2025: Vigil held for Jailed Bristol GP and Medical Activist Dr. Patrick Hart

Posted by: Hils - Posted on:

Bristol GP sparks citywide debate on the duty of a doctor to prevent future deaths as a public health advocate.

Patients and Medical Colleagues of Dr. Patrick Hart gathered for a vigil at Cascade Steps in Bristol on Saturday, March 29 at 11am. Dr.Hart, a Bristol GP of 8 years and doctor for 11 years is currently serving a 12-month prison sentence for climate protest. Dr. Hart is the first doctor in the history of the UK to face such punishment, causing widespread global concern, drawing particular attention from the UN Special Rapporteur for Environment Defenders, Michel Forst who has written to the UK government.(1) The event aims to highlight the severity of his sentence, calling attention to the increasing criminalisation and detention of doctors globally challenging unjust laws.

“I cannot think of a colleague with greater integrity, either personal or professional. The shock and sadness felt and expressed by Pat’s patients, the clinical and administration staff at the surgery on hearing the news of his incarceration is testimony to Pat’s care, commitment and compassion for his patients. As a doctor he took his responsibility to protect his patients and the wider community from harm very seriously. Doing everything in his power to prevent a climate emergency is a necessary extension to this care.” Dr Romola Pocock, GP, Bridge View Medical Practice

“Dr Hart was my GP colleague at Bridge View. It was a pleasure to work with such a competent GP who showed such care, integrity and dedication to the job. He is greatly missed by patients and colleagues, and it feels very wrong that we have lost an excellent GP because he was brave enough to stand up for what is right.” Dr Emily Pollard, GP, Bridge View Medical Practice

Dr. Hart has demonstrated commitment to his patients’ safety, despite the legal and professional consequences he faces. He was sentenced on January 7, 2025, at Chelmsford Crown Court after being convicted of criminal damage in October 2024. His conviction relates to a protest action on August 24, 2022, when he and another protester used a glass-break hammer and orange paint to damage 16 petrol-pump screens at an Esso petrol station on the M25. The prosecution stated the repairs cost £10,000 and that the station, owned by ExxonMobil, lost sales while the pumps were inactive.

At sentencing, Judge HHJ Mills asked if he would take similar action again, Dr. Hart replied:

“I’m not prepared to lie to you. I can’t predict what form it will take, but as long as I have breath in my body, I will continue to resist fossil fuels and the death that they are bringing to human beings and life on Earth.”

Dr. Hart’s sentencing raises urgent ethical questions: when corporations knowingly endanger public health, should doctors remain silent, or do they have a duty to act? ExxonMobil, the parent company of Esso, has been aware of the severe health and planetary consequences of fossil fuel use since the 1970s, based on its own internal research. Yet, the company has invested millions in disinformation campaigns and lobbying efforts to delay climate action. Meanwhile, doctors like Dr. Hart, who act to protect public health, face criminalisation.

“As a society we face a pivotal question. Will history remember doctors who stood against the destruction of the health of our planet as criminals, or as ethical leaders who fulfilled their duty to protect life? We should celebrate Bristol’s history of protest – and all those willing to take personal risks for the greater good.”

George Ferguson, Elected Mayor of Bristol 2012-2016

In addition to his prison sentence, Dr. Hart has now been suspended from practising medicine for 12 months following a ruling by the General Medical Council (GMC). The decision, made on March 19, is an interim suspension ahead of a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing, which could result in a longer suspension or removal from the medical register.

Although the tribunal acknowledged there were no concerns about Dr. Hart’s clinical abilities, the GMC argued that suspension was necessary to maintain public confidence in the profession. However, many in the medical community, including fellow doctors and the British Medical Association (BMA), have raised concerns about whether doctors should face professional sanctions for peaceful activism unrelated to their clinical work.

A BMA spokesperson stated: “The climate crisis is a health crisis. Doctors, like Patrick Hart, find it very difficult to understand why their ability to practice medicine could be suspended because of nonviolent actions they take in protest of the climate crisis.”

Dr. Hart has consistently maintained that his actions are motivated by his duty as a doctor to protect public health. In his closing statement at trial, he defended his actions:

“I do not feel guilty for what I did. I believed then, and I believe now, that it was the right thing to do. It was the carefully considered action of a responsible citizen. In times of great peril, a caring person has to stand up for what is right. I disrupted people as an act of care. I damaged the petrol pump screens as an act of care. Because, in the face of the permanent collapse of our climate, our economy, our society, and life on Earth, the only thing that keeps me going is our continued capacity as people to care.”

Dr. Hart has been both acquitted and convicted multiple times for nonviolent direct action linked to the climate crisis. In 2023, he was acquitted of criminal damage after throwing orange cornstarch powder on the pitch at Twickenham Stadium during a rugby match to protest climate inaction.

The vigil at Cascade Steps on March 29 gave members of the local community an opportunity to stand in solidarity with Dr. Hart and to call for stronger action on the climate crisis. Bristol was the first UK Local Authority to declare a climate emergency, the full council motion (paragraph 5) can be read.(2)

Patients and Medical Colleagues are also encouraging the public to:

  • Write to their MP to defend the right to peaceful protest and demand urgent climate action.
  • Contact the Royal College of GPs (info@rcgp.org.uk) to ask for a statement in support of Dr. Hart.
  • Email the Justice Secretary (shabana.mahmood.mp@parliament.uk) to oppose severe sentencing for nonviolent protestors.

Media coverage

West England Bylines: Vigil to be held for jailed Bristol GP and medical activist Dr Patrick Hart

BristolLive: Calls for Bristol doctor who damaged petrol pumps to be released from prison

X: When does a doctor’s duty to protect life extend beyond the clinic?

Notes to Editors

  1. Special Rapporteur’s letter confirming his concerns in relation to the various UK complaints
  2. In November 2018 Full Council passed a motion which declared a Climate Emergency Bristol, UK.

Video Published in the British Medical Journal, ‘Duty of Care, in a Changing Climate.’

Alongside David R. Boyd (2018 – 2024) former Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment.

Dr. Latifa Patel (BMA representative body chair) & Professor Wendy Roger (leading

  1. The need to call out corporate corruption in health https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)00520-3/abstract
  2. Ensuring health at the heart of climate change Advisory Opinion for ICJ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02815-0/fulltext