9th April 2025: Patients and Health workers protest outside the GMC in Manchester in solidarity with suspended climate activist GP Dr Patrick Hart

Alice - April 9, 2025May 11, 2025

A group of health workers and patient’s have gathered outside the General Medical Council’s (GMC) committee meeting in Manchester today to protest against their continued persecution of doctors who have been convicted for peaceful climate activism.

The main group of protestors maintained a presence outside the meeting and displayed a large banner which read “The GMC is failing in its duty to protect our patients from Climate change”, and placards drawing attention to the recent suspension of climate activist General Practitioner, Dr Patrick Hart. Meanwhile, two protestors undertook a silent protest within the meeting holding a second banner which read: “Good Medical Practice = Raising concerns about the Climate Emergency”.

Dr Patrick Hart recently became the third doctor, and the first working doctor, to be suspended from the medical register following the GMC’s decision to pursue his suspension(1). Dr Hart, who is currently serving a 12 months prison sentence for causing damage to petrol pumps during an action to highlight the complicity of Exxon Mobil in the climate emergency(2), has explained in his defence that he considers it his duty as a doctor to do everything in his power to protect his patients from the climate health emergency(3). Given its overarching duty to protect the health of the public, the General Medical Council has itself come under fire for not doing more to take action on the crisis(4).

A daily vigil outside the London offices of the GMC is now into its third week, while a large group of health workers and patients assembled in Bristol on the 29th March in support of Bristol based GP Dr Hart (5). Meanwhile, the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, Mr Michel Forst, has taken a special interest in Dr Hart’s case and has both written to the UK government to express his concern over Dr Hart’s treatment, and also met with Dr Hart in Chelmsford prison during a UK visit last week(6, 7).

A daily vigil outside the GMC offices in London is now into its third week

The GMC insist that they have a legal responsibility to prosecute doctors like Dr Hart through the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) and that furthermore, incarceration for peaceful climate action is de facto evidence of behaviour that would undermine the public’s confidence in the profession (8). They fail, however, to acknowledge that they are responsible for writing their own guidance, that they employ lawyers to argue for maximum censure at the MPTS hearings, and that they have, to date, presented no evidence to support the claim that climate activism undermines public confidence in the medical profession (9).

Under the GMC’s current regulatory framework, the MPTS, although nominally independent, in practice simply acts to rubber stamp any legal decisions handed down by the UK judiciary, in effect resulting in double jeopardy punishment of the doctor. This lack of ethical or moral independence is of growing concern given the internationally criticised anti protest legislation adopted by the last conservative government, and upheld by the current labour administration (10, 11). Of note is that in 2023 the GMC made a public apology for striking off doctors who had been found guilty under historically homophobic legislation(12), yet, under its current framework it would do exactly the same again were these laws to be reenacted.

Quotes in support

Dr Alice Clack, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist said:

“I am extremely concerned that the GMC has failed to recognise the need to consider the cases of Dr Hart and colleagues as moral and ethical issues. The actions of these brave doctors should be making them reflect on the gravity of the climate and health emergency and step into action to protect the public, rather than pursuing a harmful tick box exercise. Moreover, as a gay doctor, I absolutely do not accept the apology issued by the GMC to the gay community in 2023; If they haven’t learnt from their mistake it is simply a dishonest and meaningless PR stunt”.

Zoe Cohen, mother and patient said:

“It is appalling that as the NHS struggles under immense pressure, the GMC thinks it is appropriate to discipline doctors, like Dr Pat Hart, who has not only been working diligently as a GP, but who has also been doing everything in his power to protect his patients from the climate health emergency. The GMC should not be colluding with politicians and special interest groups to suppress the voice of doctors, it should be listening to the public health imperative that they are drawing attention to, and acting!”.

Notes for Editors:

Further Information:

Media: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hEXOIMZ_PN-YwORI5B8frWJDZwyyZr6K?usp=sharing