2022 in review: Sexism at BMA House

Problems at BMA House persisted this year, as GPs reported back in June when a Pulse investigation unveiled a ‘toxic culture’ at the Association.

Our probe followed Dr Farah Jameel’s return to her post as chair of the BMA’s GP Committee (GPC) in England, after she’d taken sick leave just three months into her tenure.

Dr Jameel, the first female to chair the GPC in England in its 109-year history, had been signed off work having reported being subjected to sexist comments and an unsupportive environment.

Her allegations came as no surprise to many.

First, there was the 2019 Romney report, in which author Daphne Romney QC wrote about female doctors and staff feeling ‘undervalued, ignored and patronised because they are women’.

She recommended that committee members undertake diversity, equality and bullying training to shake up the ‘old boys’ club network’ culture and put a stop to sexism and sexual harassment.

By all accounts those recommendations fell on deaf ears, because a second review penned by Ijeoma Omambala QC and released in May this year found that bullying was still a problem at the England GPC, with women and other minority groups being marginalised.

All this might seem removed from day-to-day life in general practice. But the issues at hand matter to each and every GP at grassroots level.

To start with, negotiators inevitably prioritise their own agendas, and the interests of a large proportion of the GP workforce go unrepresented, their voices unheard.

Take sessional GPs, for example. According to Ms Omambala’s report, just 20 sit on the 70-strong committee in England despite sessionals comprising almost half (48%) of the whole workforce.

Furthermore, any GPs who don’t fit the mould – notably, if they happen to identify as female – are less likely to be elected to BMA council. Women comprise 58% of the GP population yet make up only 38% of the UK GPC.

One positive is that the BMA’s complaints procedure was overhauled in 2019, spurring staff to come forward and speak out where previously, they’d been stifled.

But that in itself has created as well as solved problems. As more complaints roll in, more are directed down the route of lawyer-led investigation. And who foots the bill? Ordinary, BMA members on the ground.

So, hopes for change and a more supportive, inclusive environment at BMA House in the wake of two separate investigations were dashed, their recommendations largely ignored.

There was cause for cautious optimism when two new joint CEOs of the BMA – both women – took the helm in the summer, and Dr Jameel went back to work a few months after going on sick leave.

But in another twist in the meandering tale of BMA shenanigans, Dr Jameel was herself the subject of two complaints by staff members and placed on temporary suspension in November, weeks before giving birth.

Those complaints are currently being investigated. And delegates at last month’s England LMCs conference expressed concern at the ‘optics of this action’, noting her suspension – and particularly the lack of transparency around the circumstances behind it – as contradicting moves to shut down ‘institutional sexism within the BMA’.