Dr Matt Lee, DAUK sustainability lead, reiterated the United Nations’ concerns that climate change is the ‘greatest threat to our health’ and that protesting on its own does not pose a threat to patient safety.

As such, he urged the GMC to ‘take into account the gravity of the crisis’ when considering tribunals for doctors due to climate activism.

He was commenting after the Guardian highlighted the case of retired GP Dr Sarah Benn, who faces a professional tribunal by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in April.

Dr Benn is one of three GPs who face being struck off for climate activism this year, reported the Guardian.

Dr Lee said: “DAUK is watching closely the progress of Dr Sarah Benn’s tribunal in April, as well as the planned tribunals for other doctors referred to the GMC due to climate activism.

“We strongly believe in the right to protest and do not feel that participating in protesting alone poses any threat to patient safety.

“We understand that the default following a criminal conviction is referral to the MPTS for review and tribunal but strongly encourage the GMC to take into account the gravity of the climate crisis.

“We also strongly encourage the GMC to consider whether these individuals pose a threat to patient safety, or whether they should in fact be considered as patient safety champions for speaking out against inaction on the greatest threat to our health.

“Additionally, we strongly encourage the GMC themselves to take more of a leading role in campaigning against climate change and fighting to safeguard all of our futures.”

Global carbon emissions must peak by 2025 at the latest and be falling rapidly by 2030 in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, according to a report released this week by the International Panel on Climate Change. However, current policies do not come close to being adequate. (1)

The climate crisis is a healthcare crisis. Globally we are already seeing the effects of a warming atmosphere by more than 1°C: raging wildfires in Siberia, Australia, and across the Americas, fatal heatwaves in Canada and Europe, and increases in the number of storms we experience here in the UK.  

Aside from the immediate threats to health these extremes pose, as UK healthcare professionals we already see consequences of the climate crisis more than we might realise: the asthma attacks triggered by air pollution, the psychosocial hardships of having homes flooded or destroyed by storms deepening inequality, the anxiety in children who are terrified of what their world might look like with the effects of climate change.(2) It is even hypothesised that COVID-19 may have emerged in part due to climate change. (3)

First, do no harm. One of the fundamental principles of medical ethics, something that we must adhere to on a much wider scale, for the patient in front of us and for our children alongside us. The reusable coffee cup, the car-share, switching off the computer at the end of the day, individually seem insignificant actions, but together, as one of the largest employers in the world, the NHS can be a powerful instrument in the battle against climate change. But we must start now. This is the decade to prevent catastrophic damage to our home, and we are already two years in…


1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. United Nations; 2022.
2. Hickman C, Marks E, Pihkala P, Clayton S, Lewandowski R, Mayall E et al. Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health. 2021;5(12):e863-e873. doi: 10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00278-3
3. Dash S, Dipankar P, Burange P, Rouse B, Sarangi P. Climate change: how it impacts the emergence, transmission, resistance and consequences of viral infections in animals and plants. Critical Reviews in Microbiology. 2021;47(3):307-322. doi: 10.1080/1040841x.2021.1879006