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Brave GP challenges the health secretary to his face

A GP who has made national headlines after telling Jeremy Hunt he was ‘driving GPs out of the country’ has spoken to Pulse about why she did it.

Dr Emon Farrah Malik, a GP in Surrey, was in the audience at the filming of the BBC’s Question Time earlier this month.

Dr Malik – who has only been qualified a year – took the health secretary to task over his claims that GP numbers were rising, saying: ‘You’re driving us all out of the country Mr Hunt.’

She added: ‘On the day that you announced your new deal, many, many, many GPs across this country handed in their resignation that day. Do you know that?’

The GP was later reported in the national newspapers as giving Mr Hunt ‘a TV grilling’.

Dr Malik told Pulse she was tired of his ‘empty words’ and had been waiting for an opportunity to challenge him on his claims about the NHS.

She said: ‘The “new deal” had just come out and it was fresh in everyone’s mind and there was lots of anger. It was just about getting that across, as I don’t think I have seen a balanced argument about these issues.’

She added that she received a lot of support from other doctors in the audience after the programme had finished. ‘They said that was what they would have wanted to say,’ she said.