The British Medical Association

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The main function of the BMA (established 1832) is to
protect the interests of its members; it is the trade union
for doctors in the UK. It is involved in the negotiations
on behalf of doctors at national level as well as representing
members at a local level in employment-related
disputes (English et al. 2004). Membership of the BMA
is optional. A doctor who is a ‘paid-up’ BMA member
has to raise a problem locally for industrial relations
officers to become involved in a local dispute over work
conditions (otherwise there would be no point in paying
to be a member of a trade union). As well as representing
members’ interests, it also passes comment on
behalf of the profession on matters related to health
such as banning tobacco advertising, and on global
issues such as the role of doctors in executions and torture.
The BMA also has a research unit and an ethics
department, which provides guidance on contentious
issues (see below). BMA members can seek personal
advice from the ethics department, and it also collects
data on the ethical issues of concern to doctors.
The top 10 issues for which doctors sought advice
from the BMA medical ethics department in 2010 (on
the BMA website each of these is hyperlinked to guidance
from the Ethics department) were the following:

1. Under what circumstances can confidential health
information be disclosed?
2. Who can apply for access to a patient’s health
records?
3. What should a doctor do when they have child protection
concerns about a patient?
4. How much information should patients be given
in order for consent to treatment to be valid?
5. What should a doctor do if they are asked by a terminally
ill patient to write a medical report to use
abroad for assisted dying?
6. Does a patient have a right to see a medical report
written about them?
7. Under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, when is a person
judged to lack capacity?
8. How and when, can a doctor broach the subject of
private treatment with NHS patients?
9. Are GPs able to register asylum seekers and refuse
asylum seekers?
10. What is the BMA’s position on organ donation?

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