DAUK co-chairs Dr Matt Kneale and Ms Helen Fernandes wrote to NHS England over the planned changes, which were due to come into effect on 17 August.

The changes would mean that when a user leaves an NHS organisation to join another, they would only take their email address while their data, permissions and access would be archived with the former organisation.

Dr Kneale and Ms Fernandes said that while DAUK supported the proper protection of patient and confidential information, doctors must not lose access to essential work communications when moving between NHS roles or organisations.

Now Chris Parsons, NHS England deputy director collaboration services, has written to DAUK to say it is pausing the planned implementation ahead of a meeting with the association.

Implementation paused

He apologised ‘for any distress and uncertainty this has caused’, and said: “Following feedback received from the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) and individual doctors over the weekend, we have decided to pause the planned implementation of the replacement Joiner Leaver and Transfer process on NHS.net Connect.”

He said NHS England was ‘considering additional technical measures, reviewing and updating our guidance, and developing clearer information for staff undertaking learning pathways or moving between organisations as part of regular rotations’. 

Dr Kneale said: “We are grateful for this swift, receptive response. The process must work safely for patients, staff and rotating doctors.”

Read the letter from Chris Parsons, NHS England deputy director collaboration services.

DAUK committee members are all volunteers and campaign on issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

The changes would mean that when a user leaves an NHS organisation to join another, they would only take their email address while their data, permissions and access would be archived with the former organisation.

They were due to come into effect on 17 August.

In a letter to NHS England, co-chairs Dr Matt Kneale and Ms Helen Fernandes said that while DAUK supports the proper protection of patient and confidential information, but that doctors must not lose access to essential work communications when moving between NHS roles or organisations.

Dr Kneale said: “The changes may particularly affect rotational doctors, locums and doctors with more than one NHS role.
“We have asked for implementation to be paused while key safeguards are agreed.

“These include no preventable gap in access, clear guidance and urgent support, and safe arrangements for professional records and material connected with whistleblowing.”

Read the letter.

DAUK committee members are all volunteers and campaign on issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Picture credit: Sasun Bughdaryan on Unsplash

Dr Sarah Jacques and Dr Steve Taylor will continue as DAUK’s GP co-leads.

Dr Shonelly Novintan is DAUK’s learn Not Blame lead, Dr Matt Lee is sustainability lead and Dr Victoria Zaslona is SAS lead.

DAUK would like to express our profound thanks to Dr Ellen Welch, who has taken a step back from her role as vice chair but will continue to work on DAUK’s committee, and to Dr Pusho Hossain, for her incredible work as IMG lead, which included being the driving force behind the Overseas NHS Workers’ Day.

The AGM heard a round-up of some of DAUK’s work and achievements.

General practice

It’s been an incredibly busy year for the GP committee at a time when general practice is facing unprecedented pressures.

We continue to campaign and highlight the issues facing general practice from the GP contract to employment opportunities, from funding to collective action.

The ‘Your GP, Here For You’ campaign called for a contract that puts patients at the centre of care. It has provided a positive vision for general practice through continuity of care and sustainable funding.

The GP team lobbied the government over the GP contract with a letter to the health secretary signed by hundreds of GPs and patients.

More recently, co-leads Dr Steve Taylor and Dr Sarah Jacques wrote to the health secretary calling for action to improve patient safety following coroners’ findings into the deaths of two children has made headlines in medical news media.

They have represented DAUK at pharmacy events and conferences, building relationships across healthcare while advocating for greater investment in primary care.

The GP committee is an increasingly influential voice in national discussions, providing constructive policy solutions.

Members contribute extensively to the national media and professional publications, while continuing to engage directly with politicians and policymakers.

Fit Note policy

The GMC

We continue to hold the GMC to account.

We have been a leading opponent of government proposals to retain and expand the General Medical Council’s power to appeal Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service decisions.

Working alongside thirteen other medical organisations, we wrote to health minister Karin Smyth to reconsider the proposals, arguing they undermine confidence in independent regulation.

Physician associates

We continue to highlight the roles of physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs) and contribute to national discourse.

We have given strong support to Anaesthetists United’s (AU) high-profile legal challenge and expressed our ‘extreme disappointment’ at the High Court dismissing a judicial review of the GMC’s regulation of the roles.

Climate and health

The climate crisis has become an increasingly important patient safety issue.

During June’s heatwave, we surveyed healthcare professionals across the NHS, documenting unsafe temperatures affecting staff and patients.

We shared initial findings and the full report with the media, which attracted extensive national coverage.

We shared the findings with government and called for climate resilience to become a national health priority and for practical investment in NHS infrastructure to protect patients and staff during increasingly frequent extreme weather events.

We’ve collaborated with the National Emergency Briefing on its climate crisis film. We attended the original screening at Westminster, held our own online showing, and encouraged doctors to host one in their healthcare settings.

Our health, Our Planet celebrated its first birthday. It was accessed by more than 3,500 users from more than 80 countries in the first 12 months.

Medical students

Medical student members responded with force to then health secretary Wes Streeting’s comments that doctors were ‘moaning minnies’ and ‘juvenile delinquents’.
DAUK backed a complaint to the prime minister and medical students took to our website to make their voices heard.

We continue to raise the issue of bottlenecks in training and issues around placeholder roles.

Indeed, blogs by our medical students on the issue of bottlenecks in specialty training was referenced in a House of Lords briefing ahead of a debate on government plans for resident doctor training posts.

We backed the Times and Sunday Times campaign End the Graduate Rip-Off, which demands urgent reform of the student loan system in England and Wales.

Dr Taylor spoke to the Times for their campaign article highlighting the burden of student debt on medics, blogged on the issue, and was vocal on social media.

Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill

We responded to the publication of the Medical Training Bill by recognising the pressure on medical training and employment in the NHS.

Our response said that the shortage of training opportunities was  the direct result of poor workforce planning by successive governments, despite our repeated warnings. We also questioned the fairness of changing prioritisation criteria midway through the process.

A fair and effective workforce strategy must be based on long-term planning, expansion of training posts, and policies that treat doctors with consistency and respect, we said.

Palantir and patient data

Over the past year, DAUK has remained a leading clinical voice advocating for the safe and ethical use of patient data.

Led by Dr David Nicholl, we have continued our long-standing opposition to Palantir’s involvement in the Federated Data Platform with Our Data, Our NHS campaign.

Working alongside Foxglove and other campaign groups, we argue Palantir’s involvement erodes public trust and does not provide value for money.

Dr Nicholl has highlighted the issue in national newspapers and radio interviews, and hosted a briefing in Westminster for MPs.

Last month we welcomed the publication of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee’s report.

It raised significant concerns about the growing role of Palantir in public services and the NHS.

NHS Domestic Abuse Awareness Day

Working with the Medical Women’s Federation, we launched the first NHS Domestic Abuse Awareness Day in December.

An incredible amount of work went into it from Dr Ellen Welch and Dr Jacques with medical organisations across the country, including the BMA, getting involved.

Healthcare workers shared their powerful stories in the media, in particular the BMJ, and Dr Welch and Dr Jacques explored issues around domestic abuse on a podcast.

Not The NHS Again!

Dr Taylor, in collaboration with Keep Our NHS Public, has launched the Not The NHS Again! Podcast.

The podcast dives deep into the issues facing the NHS, healthcare workers, and patients.

Released on Spotify and YouTube every Friday, it features discussions with campaigners and healthcare experts.

Media

DAUK and our committee members continue to be seen by journalists as trusted sources and authoritative voices to comment on issues.

In the week before the AGM alone, our work surveying healthcare workers about conditions in the heatwave has been covered in the national press, healthcare publications, and national TV.

We regularly contribute to articles and broadcasts, and provide briefings and background material to journalists.

We are proactive in putting out comment on issues on our website and social media, and sending directly to journalists.

And we are quick to respond to requests, with someone being available to speak to a journalist in the majority of cases.

Our GP co-lead Dr Taylor in particular is incredibly active providing comment to general practice publications on GP-related issues.

The DAUK website a document of record and is regularly updated with news, campaigns, activities, and statements.

Social media

We have a strong social media presence which is really helped by how active our committee members are.

Dr Taylor is particularly active on X and helps to amplify our messaging and Dr Ellen Welch really pushes Instagram.

It’s important that our social media is accessed by our committee members, which gives it an authentic and authoritative voice.

Substack

Our Substack offers a vehicle for committee members to blog on issues that interest and affect them. It has also allowed us to repurpose previous blogs and share on social media, and has led to wider discussions and interviews in traditional media.

Collaborative leadership

A great strength of DAUK is our willingness to work collaboratively.

It is a theme that runs through this report, from supporting AU with financial contributions to members invited to present at conferences and events.

Our work on the Federated Data Platform, whistleblowing, the NHS Domestic Abuse Awareness Day, the climate crisis, and the GMC’s powers of appeal, are illustrations of how this collaborative approach has significantly amplified our voice and influence.

And we’ll be continuing that later this year with a joint conference with Doctors For The NHS in York in October.

Under the scheme, GPs who have paid GMC fees during a period of parental leave will receive an equivalent credit against their Medical Defense Society membership payments.

The initiative is available to new and existing Medical Defense Society members and applies retrospectively to doctors who have taken parental leave within the previous 12 months.

DAUK campaign

It follows DAUK’s campaign over the GMC’s policy of charging registration fees during parental leave.

Currently, the GMC annual retention fee is £481. It offers a 50% discount if a doctor’s total annual income falls below £37,000.

In contrast, royal colleges typically waive or reduce fees, and the BMA offers a reduced rate.

The initiative is open to GPs, GP partners and locum GPs.

Parental leave

Dr Matt Kneale, DAUK co-chair, said: “Doctors should not be penalised financially for taking their statutory entitled parental leave.

“We have consistently raised our concerns about the continued charging of GMC fees during parental leave, which we feel is unfair and may disproportionately impact women.

“We are pleased to have worked with Medical Defense Society to develop this initiative which recognises the importance of new parents being able to bond with their child, while helping to ease the financial pressures faced by GPs at a significant moment in their lives.

“This is a first step and we hope to work with more providers in the future to widen access and reduce the burden of these unnecessary fees.

“In the meantime, we continue to call for doctors on maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave, to have their GMC fee reduced in proportion to the period of leave.”

Financially disadvantaged

Rohan Simon, CEO of Medical Defense Society, said: “GPs should not be financially disadvantaged for taking parental leave.

“At a time when doctors are stepping away from practice to care for their families, the continued cost of professional registration can feel both unfair and unnecessary.

“Medical Defense Society was created to offer a more modern, responsive approach to medical defence. Working with DAUK on this initiative allows us to turn a widely recognised concern into practical support for GPs.

“By giving eligible GPs a practical way to get the value of their GMC fee back, we hope to ease some of the financial pressure and send a clear message that parental leave should be supported.”

GPs can find out more about the Medical Defense Society Parental Leave Scheme, including eligibility and how to apply, by clicking here.

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

The comments, reported by HSJ, represent the clearest statement yet that NHS leadership views workforce substitution not as a patient safety measure but as a strategic response to doctors exercising their legal right to strike.

This approach contradicts the findings of the government’s own Leng Review, published in July 2025, which found no compelling evidence that substituting doctors with physician associates is safe – particularly in primary care and in settings involving undifferentiated patients.

The Leng Review identified that only one study of four physician associates had involved any direct observation of clinical competence by a doctor. No studies had examined safety incidents.

OECD data shows that the UK already has fewer practising doctors per head of population than almost all comparable countries. Rather than addressing this shortfall, NHS England’s strategy would widen it further.

A BMA survey of patients found that the public ranked physician associates as more senior than resident doctors, demonstrating deep confusion about who is providing their care.

DAUK has consistently argued that deliberate policy choices – caps on medical school places, failure to expand training posts, real-terms pay erosion and a hostile environment for international medical graduates – have created the doctor shortage driving both the industrial dispute and the push for substitution.

Dr Matt Kneale, DAUK co-chair, said: “Sir Jim Mackey’s comments confirm what frontline doctors have long suspected: that the drive to replace doctors with less qualified staff is not about improving patient care – it is about reducing the bargaining power of the medical workforce.

“You cannot simultaneously argue that doctors are so essential that their strikes cause unacceptable harm, and that the solution is to design them out of clinical care. These positions are mutually exclusive.

“The Leng Review found no evidence that doctor substitution is safe. The NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan set a target of 10,000 physician assistants before that evidence review was even commissioned. This is policy-based evidence, not evidence-based policy.”

Dr Steve Taylor, DAUK GP lead, said: “In the private sector, you see a doctor. In the NHS, the plan is for you to see anyone but a doctor. That is a political choice, and it is putting lives at risk.

“The UK already has fewer doctors per head than almost every comparable country. No other nation is responding to that gap by designing doctors out of patient care. They are training more of them.

“In general practice, patients present with undifferentiated symptoms that require the diagnostic expertise only medical training provides. The Leng Review itself found no compelling evidence that physician assistants are safe to work as doctor substitutes in primary care. GPs and their patients deserve better than a workforce strategy built on replacing expertise with cost savings.”

DAUK is a grassroots organisation of volunteers representing doctors and medical students in the NHS, campaigning for patient safety, fair working conditions and evidence-based workforce policy. For more information visit https://dauk.org

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

The General Medical Council (GMC) today (Tuesday 24 March) launched its annual survey on medical training.

The anonymous survey is the UK’s largest annual insight into postgraduate medical training, with more than 71,000 respondents last year.

National Training Survey

Dr Matt Kneale, DAUK co-chair, said: “The National Training Survey is one of the most important tools we have for understanding the pressures facing doctors in training.

“We do encourage every trainee and trainer to complete it, as responses can lead to real change.

“But year after year, the data tells the same story. Burnout is endemic, rota gaps undermine training and too many doctors do not feel safe raising concerns.

“The GMC must demonstrate that collecting this data leads to enforceable action, not just another report.”

Specialty training

Dr Kneale added: “With the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act now law and specialty training applications at record levels, the survey must evolve to capture the full reality of the training crisis, including the impact of the bottleneck on morale and career uncertainty.”

For the first time, doctors will be asked if their employer encourages a culture of shared learning and knowledge between different healthcare professionals.

The GMC said this was ‘to capture how well trainees feel supported to engage in multidisciplinary communication, which is critical for safe patient care’.

Dr Kneale said: “We note the introduction of a new question on shared learning between healthcare professionals.

Patient safety

“DAUK supports effective multidisciplinary working, but the GMC must ensure this data is not used to advance workforce substitution agendas without addressing scope of practice and patient safety.”

The survey takes around 20 minutes to complete and runs until midday on Wednesday 6 May. It includes questions on discriminatory behaviours, quality of teaching and supervision, workloads, burnout, and training opportunities.  

The results will be published later this year. Find out more about the National Training Survey. 

Professor Pushpinder Mangat, GMC medical director and director of education and standards, said: “The results of this survey are vital for supporting doctors and protecting patients.

Real-life action

“They translate into real-life action when it comes to patient safety, and the environments doctors work and train in. 

“Therefore, it is important that trainees and trainers take the time to share their perspectives.

“The results will be used to improve doctors’ experiences, as well as those of their peers and patients, by highlighting areas of good practice and those where action is needed.”

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

The day presents an opportunity to celebrate the wonderful contributions of our international colleagues, on which the NHS depends. 

What is Overseas NHS Workers Day?

Overseas NHS Workers Day was launched in 2021 by DAUK’s international medical graduate lead (IMG) Dr Pushpo Hossain. 

With around one in five NHS staff in England report a non-British nationality, Overseas NHS Workers Day is an opportunity to celebrate and thank the doctors, nurses, support staff, and other professions from around the world whose skills and tireless work help make the NHS what it is.

It is also a day to raise awareness of the challenges many overseas workers face, from visa and training hurdles to career progression barriers.

And it is a moment to champion opportunity across the NHS workforce. DAUK continues to call for policies that expand training places and address workforce planning, ensuring doctors trained in the UK and internationally can thrive and contribute fully to patient care.

Get involved in Overseas NHS Workers Day

There are lots of ways people and organisations can take part on or around 6 March:

• Share a message of thanks on your organisation’s intranet, newsletter or social channels.
• Post pictures and videos of overseas staff on your trust-wide social media platforms
• Encourage leaders to publicly acknowledge and celebrate international staff contributions.
• Decorate your workplace in blue and green, the colours of Overseas NHS Workers Day.
• Host an international lunch or showcase the flags of the nations represented in your NHS teams.
• Use the hashtags #OverseasNHSWorkersDay and #ONHSWD to share stories and photos online.

#ONHSWD

Don’t forget to use the hashtags #OverseasNHSWorkersDay or #ONHSWD. You can tag us as well: @thedoctorsassociationuk on Instagram @TheDoctorsAssociationUK on Facebook @theDA_UK and @WorkersNHS on X, and @thedauk.bsky.social on BlueSky

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder or by becoming a member.

DAUK is deeply concerned at the reports and is establishing the facts and circumstances, and is seeking further information.

If you are a doctor at King’s College Hospital affected by this, or with knowledge of the situation, please contact DAUK in confidence by emailing contact@dauk.org

We urge all parties involved, the Trust and trade unions, including the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA), to act promptly, lawfully, and with fairness towards all affected staff.

Clinical fellows are a vital part of the medical workforce. They deserve proper process, adequate notice, and genuine support, not uncertainty and insecurity.

At a time when the NHS faces a chronic shortage of doctors, when emergency departments are under sustained and unprecedented pressure, and when the government has committed to reducing waiting times and rebuilding the health service, the removal of significant numbers of clinical staff at one of London’s busiest major trauma centres runs counter to everything that is needed. The NHS needs more doctors, not fewer.

DAUK will continue to monitor the situation closely and will provide further updates as additional information becomes available.

The letter follows Health Secretary’s recent decision to release text messages exchanged with Peter Mandelson.

Signatories to the letter, including DAUK, welcomed that disclosure but argued that the same standard should apply to discussions with donors who may benefit from government health policy.

The letter highlights concerns about the scale and source of donations received by the Health Secretary.

Private health donors

An investigation in April 2025 by the Good Law Project, cited in the letter, reported that Mr Streeting received donations from private health companies or individuals with interests in private healthcare at a rate of £10,000 per month.

The letter says that up to 60% of donations to Mr Streeting since 2015, totalling around £372,000, came from these sources.

The signatories are asking Mr Streeting to release messages relating to health policy, Department of Health and Social Care announcements, and NHS contracts exchanged with five named donors, including executives and investors linked to healthcare recruitment, private providers and US health insurance firms.

Public trust

The letter says the publication of these communications would help to reassure the public that current reforms, including expanding the use of private providers in delivering NHS services, are not influenced by undisclosed ‘quid pro quo’ relationships.

Co-chair Dr Ellen Welch, who has signed the letter on behalf of DAUK, said: “Transparency is fundamental to public trust in our politicians and the motivations for their decisions.

“When senior decision-makers receive funding from individuals and companies that stand to gain from health policy, it is entirely reasonable to ask for openness about those relationships.”

The signatories have also requested a meeting with the Health Secretary to discuss their concerns.

Transparency

Johnbosco Nwogbo, campaign lead at We Own It said: “We can disagree in good faith on the correctness or wrongness of any particular health policy, but voters need to know that private sector parties are not clandestinely influencing what ends up being decided.

“This is an opportunity for Wes Streeting to raise the bar on transparency in public service.”

Read the open letter in full below.

Dear Rt Hon. Wes Streeting MP,

Thank you for publishing your WhatsApp messages with Lord Mandelson in order to be transparent about the nature of your relationship. This step was particularly important because his lobbying firm, Global Counsel, has worked for Palantir and other firms that have a direct interest in government policy, including policy affecting the health service, which he was likely influencing.

We the undersigned are writing to ask you to extend this important step toward transparency to persons who have donated to you and with whom you have discussed health policy, DHSC announcements and NHS contracts.

With 60% of your donations coming either from the private healthcare sector, or from individuals with a financial interest in the private healthcare sector, you can demonstrate that your NHS reforms are driven by principle, rather than unaccountable lobbying.

In April 2025, the Good Law Project revealed that you received donations from private health companies or individuals with interests in private healthcare at a rate of £10,000 per month. Up to 60% of your donations since 2015, totalling £372,000, came from these sources.

We are therefore asking you to release your messages with the following persons:

• Peter Hearn, whose healthcare workers’ recruitment firms MPM Connect and OPD Group have given you a total of £197,900. He has also given you £40,000 in his personal capacity;
• John Armitage, a hedge fund manager with investments of half a billion dollars in United Health, the US’s largest health insurance company, has given you £95,000;
• Sir Trevor Chinn, a senior advisor to a firm holding investments in several private health companies, gave you £18,500;
• Kevin Craig, founder and CEO of PLMR a political consultancy that advises a firm that provides temporary staff to the NHS, has given you £13,000, and
• Red Capital Ltd, controlled by a sitting director of Europa Healthcare Group, Lord Jonathan Mendelsohn, has given you £5,000.

Releasing to the public your messages with these donors (relating to health policy, DHSC announcements and NHS contracts) would help assure the public that your policy of increasing the use of the private sector for the provision of NHS services, is not driven by a quid pro quo relationship.

We would be also grateful for an opportunity to meet with you to discuss this matter further.

We look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Kind regards

Dr Ellen Welch – co-chair, Doctors Association UK

Cat Hobbs – director, We Own It

Linda Burnip – Disabled People Against Cuts

John Puntis – co-chair, Keep Our NHS Public

Mark Ladbrooke – chair, Socialist Health Association

Jan Shortt – general secretary, National Pensioners Convention

Dr Julia Grace Patterson – director, Every Doctor

Diarmaid McDonald – director, Just Treatment

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

DAUK is building an evidence base for a formal challenge of the GMC’s policy on doctors’ fees during parental leave. It says the policy could be ‘indirectly discriminatory’.

Currently, the GMC annual retention fee is up to £463 and is set to rise to £481 from 1 April.

Maternity provision

Dr Matt Kneale, co-chair of the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK), said: “This is mandatory with no option to pause and no specific maternity provision.

“Let it lapse and doctors face readmission fees, delays, and being unable to practise.”

The GMC only offers a 50% discount if a doctor’s total annual income falls below £37,000.

Dr Kneale said: “If doctors work six months before maternity leave their annual income may exceed £37,000, even if they spend the rest of the year earning a fraction of their salary or nothing at all.

Maternity pay

“So they pay the full price of £463. Which means the GMC fee is more than two weeks statutory maternity pay, which is £187 per week.

“In the unpaid phase of maternity leave, doctors are paying to maintain a registration they’re legally required to hold but can’t use.”

By contrast, indemnity providers including the MDU, MPS and MDDUS treat maternity leave as a career break and charge nothing.

Royal colleges typically waive or reduce fees, and the BMA offers a reduced rate.

Indirectly discriminatory

Dr Kneale said: “We believe the GMC’s approach disproportionately impacts women. A flat fee with an income threshold that ignores in-year income loss risks being indirectly discriminatory.”

We’re asking affected doctors to email DAUK with:

·       The type of leave, such as maternity, shared parental, or adoption

·       Dates. The months and years are fine)

·       Whether they got any GMC discount

·       And whether they were on full pay, half pay, statutory maternity pay, or unpaid

Dr Kneale added: “We’re asking for people to share their experience with us so we can build an evidence base to challenge this properly.”

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.