"We want to be assured that no one will be left behind in this new online hospital" Our Chair of Council @tomdolphin.bsky.social responds to the Government's announcement www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-ce...

The BMA is now 200,000 members strong - and counting. Commenting, council chair @tomdolphin.bsky.social said: "Together we are all the BMA, and alongside our brilliant staff, the members are what give the BMA its voice and strength." Read more: www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opi...

Pleasure to do this great panel hosted by @thefabians.bsky.social along w Nicola Rayner (@rcn.org.uk) and @kevinmckenna.co.uk We covered workforce planning (lacking), AI in healthcare (unready) and how to get from here to the 10 Year Health Plan’s end points (unclear but may be for us to determine)

A pleasure to chair @bma.org.uk Resident Doctors Committee meeting today for the elections section. Congratulations to the new officer team, and thank you and well done to the outgoing team, who worked incredibly hard this last year for members. The fight to restore our pay continues!

“This announcement will cause a great deal of anxiety and distress to our much-needed and valued international workforce, including international doctors, who are the backbone of the health services in the UK" @tomdolphin.bsky.social Read our response in full www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-ce...

"A spiralling crisis and a disjointed health service which demands a solution. So a long-term plan for the NHS is not just appealing but is essential.” @tomdolphin.bsky.social delivers keynote speech at #SRM25, where our members will debate if this plan is the solution to the NHS in crisis.

"When you make a big change, it requires investment... We need more detail about how we're going to get from here to there" @tomdolphin.bsky.social spoke to BBC Breakfast this morning ahead of #SRM25, where our members will debate the NHS England 10-Year Health Plan www.bma.org.uk/what-we-do/s...

Boris Johnson says these are just common sense and reasonable statements

The 'trans lobby' here is trans people and their families who were - shock horror - consulted about trans health care. David Thompson writes that consulting trans groups is "contradictory to the expert warnings of the Cass Review".

Quick update on a few other things to end the day: Our NHS colleagues are angry; Residents in England are making some progress in talks; GPs in NI are acting collectively; @bma-ni.bsky.social are in dispute over unpaid uplifts; and @BMAstudents have a win on student funding. Have a good weekend!

Doctors know we need nationally-set scope for PAs and AAs. Local scope will mean local scope creep, without a doubt - we're already seeing it happening. It's not fair on them and it's not fair on patients or the supervising doctors. So why is no-one taking this responsibility?

To reiterate; This is how the Guardian describes a tweet that advocates assaulting trans women; “Posts on transgender issues”

The BMA and many others warned that this was coming, and now it is here. The UK government must act immediately to prevent widespread death in Gaza from hunger. This is entirely man-made and is intolerable. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ck...

Well, @duolingoverde.bsky.social knows where it’s at ✊ Ensemble nous sommes plus forts; ensemble nous gagnerons!

Doctors take on huge responsibilities from day one, as @tomdolphin.bsky.social set out to Trevor Phillips today. We’re asking the Government for a credible path to #PayRestoration for resident doctors in England

Great to speak to the new F1 resident doctors at my Trust today about the role of trade unions in correcting the huge power imbalance between employer and employee, and some of the professional work we are doing as well. Most already @bma.org.uk members, but lots of new signups too! ✊

Honoured to be at the Barts and The London Rites of Passage ceremony 2025 tonight - St Paul’s provides a magnificent backdrop for this key moment in the careers of these new doctors. 🖤🤍

Resident doctors will be striking in England this time next week. I will be joining them on the picket line in support. The Secretary of State can end the dispute if he has the will to do so. @bma.org.uk remain open to further proposals after yesterday’s constructive talks.

“The trouble is the review… avoids the difficult question of how you set that scope, that limit of what PAs can do.” Responding to the Leng Review, BMA council chair @tomdolphin.bsky.social has spoken to the BBC about doctors’ concerns over patient safety

I think it's now possible to make a poli-sci course that equips one for modern political analysis better than most classic theory and has a syllabus sourced entirely from random internet posts. Text 1. Wilhoit's Law, born as part of a 2018 blog comment crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/l...

BMA council chair @tomdolphin.bsky.social has spoken to the Guardian on why the Government must set out a credible path to pay restoration for resident doctors in England. Read the article here 👇🔗 www.theguardian.com/society/2025... #PayRestoration

Are you a resident thinking about taking a locum shift on a strike day? Why risk actively undermining the strike, when you could just wait for your back pay from Wes’ pay award (such as it is) to arrive in August? 😇

"The Government and NHS England both state today that the modest [waiting list] improvements we’ve seen so far are down to staff’s hard work. They now need to demonstrate this with more than words and commit to restoring doctors’ pay and value." Full response: www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-ce...

The Leng report is unlikely to be the final chapter in the story of PAs/AAs in the UK. Serial irresponsibility by multiple actors has left us w/ a complex, difficult situation, incl for the PAs/AAs themselves. Unpicking it will take a while; pt safety has to be the guiding light.

Pride is a protest - proud to represent LGBTQ+ doctors and medical students for @bma.org.uk at @PrideInLondon 2025!

You should still post back your ballot if you're a resident doctor in England - it might not make it back to Civica in time but you gotta try, right? Data for reps, GP collective action, 10 Year Plan, interview for BBC News, more GP collective action, and now off to my on-call...

All organising is local, every conversation counts, every ballot builds our strength. Have I mentioned yet that you need to put your ballot in the post by Monday at the latest to be sure it's counted? We need the ballot to succeed, so pop a reminder in your local whatsapp now!

Going round the hospital on my lunch break briefly to remind residents to return their ballots - signed up @BMA.org.uk newest member! Harsha, ED registrar and IMG, has signed up today specifically to join the pay campaign. Welcome to the union! ✊

1) Residents in England, post your strike ballot back ASAP - and tell your colleagues 2) GPs in N Ireland, find your referendum email and stand up against contract imposition 3) Sign @bma.org.uk's demand for an alternative regulator to the GMC: activism.bma.org.uk/page/172664/... 4) Enjoy the sun! 🌞

First day as Chair of Council @bma.org.uk. Good introductory phone call this evening with Wes Streeting - lots more to discuss in future meetings, but constructive engagement from the Secretary of State on the issues that matter to doctors.

Tonight, @tomdolphin.bsky.social has been elected as the new BMA Chair of Council. We offer our congratulations and a warm welcome to the role. Thank you to @drphilbanfield.bsky.social for his dedication to our members and the medical profession over the past 3 years. www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-ce...

Why do so many messaging apps have one-tap video calling? To make an actual phone call requires several taps and can’t easily be done by accident any more. But video calling someone in WhatsApp is very easily done by touching a single button RIGHT NEXT TO other key buttons! It’s just bad UI design

Just rescued another exhausted bee from the footpath and fed it some sugar water from the Beevive keyring I always have with me 🐝❤️ beevive.com

There’s some strong fightback energy in the Pride month memes I’m seeing kicking about this year

I hadn't realised how dependent I was on caffeine until I unintentionally stopped drinking tea completely for a few days, and couldn't work out why I felt so terrible on day 4-5. Quick dose of tea and I felt so much better. May try to cut down again, but in a more controlled way this time..

Big fan of this definition of "white British" that excludes the King

Wes has graciously agreed that PAs should be Physicians Assistants in future. He could have waited until Leng actually reported but clearly had *reasons* to say now, can’t imagine why. This has no bearing on whether you should Yes to strike action to demand full pay restoration, which you should.

This headline is so unintentionally funny to me. Beware! Carcinization can happen to anyone at any time! 🦀😅

every company from june 1st until june 30th

Pride remains a protest. A protest at the erosion of our hard-won rights. A protest at the normalisation of marginalisation. A protest at the rise of hate. A protest at rainbow-washing by organisations whose actions harm the LGBTQ+ community. A protest to demand our safety.

While it's sometimes claimed that PAs and AAs are trained according to a 'medical model', in a new statement the BMA medical academic staff committee argue this terminology is outdated and misleading. Full statement: www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opi...

If we let them get away with giving doctors another real-terms pay cut this year under the DDRB's supposedly revised terms of reference, we will never get pay restoration. If we only ever get our value recognised by demanding it through collective action, then so be it; that's on the Government.

Well, they've given another real-terms pay cut to doctors. That's not pay restoration, it's more pay erosion; an insult to the medical profession. The BMA will not stand for this; we will stand together and if need be we will strike again. Wes Streeting, Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer: this is on you.

We need codified legal abortion yesterday.

You're mad if you think fear of the RW press is a good reason for Labour not to go faster and harder on reversing Brexit. Here's 24H of attacks on Labour in just one newspaper (the Express) to get a taste of what's being thrown at them. The RW are already at maximum brutality!

For #IDAHOBIT this year, Vassili and I wrote for @bma.org.uk about community and being LGBTQ+ in our society and profession. Community doesn’t just happen; it is built. It needs people willing to connect, speak, and act to build a profession where everyone belongs. www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opi...

I was non-clinical today and sat in the anaesthetic coffee room with my laptop all day doing email, and it was just really nice to see my anaesthetic colleagues coming in and out, chatting to them and having a laugh. We so rarely see each other usually, each in our own theatre, so this was lovely

You're not imagining it, things are getting worse for LGBTQ+ people. Disappointing although not surprising to see the UK's downward trend on @ilgaeurope.bsky.social map of LGBTQ+ rights and protections. From 1st place in Europe to 22nd in just ten years. rainbowmap.ilga-europe.org/countries/un...

OK, this is wild. In September 2023, geophysicists across the world started monitoring a very odd signal coming from the ground under them. It was picked up in the Arctic. And Antarctica. It was detected everywhere, every 90 seconds, as regular as a metronome, for *nine days*. What the HELL? 1/