‘My GMC suspension won’t stop me from blowing the whistle on climate change’

Dr Sarah Benn, a retired GP in Birmingham, writes about her suspension by the courts this week for taking part in peaceful climate change protests.

This week, the Medical Court Service decided that I should be suspended from the medical register for five months. Members of the panel agreed with the GMC that my integrity in practice was affected by misconduct so serious as to undermine public confidence in the profession. Five months would give me the opportunity to reflect, and develop awareness of the importance of observing the law, and the effect of my conduct on public confidence in doctors. There was no concern over my 32 years of medical practice before I retire from clinical work in 2022.

I have been reflecting on issues of trust and responsibility since 2019, my first step into non-violent direct action in the context of the climate emergency. My position has not changed yet. I see a compelling duty to alert and compel action against the greatest threat to human life and health ever faced.

I admit it, I’ve broken the law: in cases handled by the courts, a civil order prohibiting protests at a gas station. This law, designed to protect the interests of an industry that profits in filthy ways while destroying our world, meant I spent 32 days in jail for contempt of court. How? I stood with a banner on the grass verge of the public road, and sat with a banner in the private entrance to the station until I was arrested by the police.

Scientists are united in agreement that we are in an accelerating climate emergency. The way is scary, and we are preferably already above the maximum temperature of 1.5’C to climb we must strive to find the next life. My poster said ‘Stop New Oil’ because we have no chance of going back without stopping burning oil – not immediately, but certainly by 2030. Nothing in the current response to the climate emergency shows to me that our governments and institutions are working . the urgency required to avoid disaster.

Our government is reneging on climate commitments and increasing harm with policies like these ‘max out’ North Sea oil and gas production.

I was recently asked to describe the health of our planet, as if it were my patient. We doctors are all taught about the ideal patient who sustains a severe and ongoing insult – think massive blood loss, or the early stages of sepsis. Blood pressure is reasonable, they walk and talk, and they just look a tad pale and clammy. They still pay psychological compensation to the maximum capacity, until everything collapses, and they die. A wise doctor recognizes creeping tachycardia, a subtle rash, acts quickly and decisively with emergency measures to resuscitate …flow of water, oxygen, and carefully, by preventing the effects of bleeding, giving antibiotics to target bacteria.

The world is sick like that. It is based on a greater ability to absorb the negative impacts of humans without showing a loss in performance to ordinary viewers – unless of course they live in parts of the world at the extreme end of climate change, especially in the global South which done at least cause this problem. However, signs of decomposition are not missing, the tipping points are closeor even violated.

I’m blowing the whistle, and I won’t stop. Public confidence and the reputation of the profession will be more damaged by the failure of those who could have used their privileged position to perform, but chose not to, than the doctors who do their best, at personal cost, to protect life. The GMC recently apologized to gay doctors who were sacked for breaking the law and bringing the profession into disrepute. I’m not holding my breath for an apology, and I really don’t want pity. I just want our medical institutions to show some leadership and moral courage, and act more effectively than introducing low energy light bulbs and reusable coffee cups.

There will be zero targets, no GMC, no court service, and no medicine on a dead planet.

Dr Sarah Benn is a retired GP in Birmingham