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Tom Dolphin, consultant anaesthetist and trade union stalwart, steps into the role of BMA council chair at a moment of industrial unrest, deep uncertainty about medical roles and training, and a government promising reform but facing huge financial challenges.
Dolphin, age 46, is seen to represent generational change at the BMA. He now leads an organisation reshaped by the rise of the grassroots Doctors Vote organisation and younger activists galvanised by declining pay and working conditions.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a huge change in direction,” he says, but points to a need to bring the union “closer to the local membership.”
Too centralised for too long, he says, the BMA must do more to train and support grassroots representatives. “We’re just not particularly facilitating the work of local negotiating committees and regional reps. We need to empower them—so they know their rights, how to run a campaign effectively, how to find allies.”
Hotbed of radicalism?
With more Doctors Vote members being elected as representatives, the BMA has been criticised in the press for being too radical.12 Dolphin calls this “overblown.” “There’s certainly a shift towards a much younger feel to council, reflecting how at the most recent elections a large number of resident doctors were very angry and motivated.”
“The trade union side of the BMA had diminished in effectiveness,” he says. “All that we’ve done really is rebalance that.”
Dolphin was speaking after the BMA’s Resident Doctors Committee …
