M25 climate protest GP suspended for three months

A GP who took part in a climate protest blocking the M25 motorway will be suspended for three months, a medical practitioners’ tribunal has decided.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing, which concluded last week, examined allegations that Dr Diana Warner had breached a court order by protesting on the M25 in 2021 and had damaged the property at a magistrates court in 2022.

Dr Warner, a retired GP who worked for 30 years at Bristol surgeries, admitted to all of the allegations at the start of proceedings, so the tribunal sought to establish whether her actions amounted misconduct and impaired her fitness to practise.

It accepted that Dr Warner ‘holds her beliefs sincerely’ but said that she was ‘not justified in breaking the law regardless of her beliefs’.

The tribunal found that her fitness to practise was impaired and that her lack of ‘insight into her misconduct’ means that there is a ‘significant risk of repetition’, and decided to suspend her registration for a period of three months.

In October 2021, Dr Warner took part in two separate protest actions organised by Insulate Britain, which included sitting down on the ‘live carriageway’, gluing herself to the surface, and blocking or ‘endangering’ the flow of traffic onto the M25.

The High Court, who issued the injunction on such action, found that she and others had ‘deliberately’ breached the order and were in ‘contempt of court’. This led to two periods of imprisonment, one for two months and the other for 30 days.

The tribunal noted that Dr Warner had failed to attend parts of her High Court hearings due to taking part in other protest actions, such as gluing herself to the steps outside the Royal Courts of Justice.

Later, in 2022, Dr Warner was convicted of criminal damage after gluing herself to the dock during a magistrates court hearing for another matter.

She told the tribunal that it is her ‘strong conviction that the only way to force this agenda before government is disruption’.

Her evidence to the tribunal also revealed that her strong commitment to tackling climate change – which she believes is part of the ‘duty of doctors’ – came from a promise she made to an infant patient.

The hearing document said: ‘She stated that the moment of epiphany came during a routine six-week baby check while she was examining the baby to check for congenital hip dysplasia.

‘She stated that she realised that climate change was a bigger threat to this baby than any condition she may find.  She stated that at that moment, she vowed to do everything she could to protect that baby from the worst effects of climate change.’

The tribunal concluded that while some members of the public may agree with her actions, there is a ‘portion of the public’ who would be ‘extremely concerned’ by a doctor putting the ‘public at risk’.

‘The tribunal decided that it is unacceptable for doctors, who are held in high regard, to act in a repeatedly unlawful manner and to make conscious deliberate decisions to put other sections of the public at risk during protests,’ the document said.

The tribunal also said it took into account Dr Warner’s ‘assertion that she is prepared to act outside of the law in the future’, if she ‘deems it necessary’.

It added: ‘In view of its findings that Dr Warner lacks insight and has not remediated her misconduct, and Dr Warner’s indication that she cannot rule out the possibility of acting illegally in the future, the tribunal determined that Dr Warner is liable, in the future, to bring the medical profession into dispute, and is liable, in the future, to breach fundamental tenets of the profession.

‘The tribunal has therefore determined that Dr Warner’s fitness to practise is currently impaired.’

The GMC has said in a new clarifying document that it has a ‘legal duty’ to consider any concern that is raised about a doctors’ actions, and that if a doctor has been convicted in a criminal matter and given a custodial sentence, this must be referred to tribunal. 

GMC General Counsel and director of fitness to practise Anthony Omo said: ‘In Dr Diana Warner’s case, as she received a custodial sentence following a criminal conviction, this meant an automatic referral to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service for a hearing.

‘Doctors, like all citizens, have the right to express their personal opinions on issues, including climate change. There is nothing in our guidance to prevent them from doing so, nor from exercising their right to lobby government and to campaign – this includes taking part in protests.

‘However, when doctors’ protesting results in law-breaking, they must understand that it is their actions, rather than their motivations, that will be under scrutiny. Patients and the public have a high degree of trust in doctors, that trust can be put at risk when doctors fail to comply with the law.

‘Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing us all, particularly given the serious threat a changing climate poses to human health and wellbeing, and we are committed to doing what we can to tackle climate change. But it is not our role to determine whether UK law as regards climate change protests needs to change – that is a matter for Parliament.’

This case comes after Birmingham GP Dr Sarah Benn, who took part in climate change protests at a Warwickshire oil terminal in 2022, was referred to the MPTS for multiple breaches of a court order and was suspended for five months.

The decision to suspend Dr Benn sparked discussions among the profession with some doctors criticising the verdict as they thought her actions posed no threat to patients, and the BMA has been calling for a review.

Following Dr Benn’s case, Pulse revealed that several GPs were concerned about a conflict of interest for the deputy chair of the BMA’s GP Committee England as he was a medical member on the panel that made the decision.

Deputy chair Dr Julius Parker then said he will ‘pause’ his involvement in MPTS tribunals following the criticism.