It will be an honour and a privilege to lead our work here in Cymru in this next chapter as your new chair (Cadeirydd) of Welsh council.

The challenge is stark. The NHS in Wales is in crisis: general practice is on the brink, clinical academia is fading, public health is not prioritised, pay and jobs are eroded, corridor care is normalised, estates and equipment are falling apart, and politicians and NHS leaders have frequently mismanaged the situation.

We can and must do better, and I am more confident than ever that we can do that by collective action and growing our membership, building off the series of national disputes we have won in recent years. We have a perfect opportunity with a new Senedd term and we will continue to lobby for our manifesto policies and our campaigns on saving general practice, pay restoration, ending corridor care, jobs for doctors and preventing doctor substitution.
 
I’d like to thank Iona Collins for her passionate leadership over the last few years. It has been a period of significant change for the BMA as we have shifted to become an effective, organising union that wins. Dr Collins was the first woman to lead BMA Cymru in its history and never shied away from advocacy and speaking truth to power. I am proud to follow in those footsteps and equally proud to be the first openly LGBTQ+ person leading BMA Cymru, which now also has a gender-balanced council for the first time too.
 
I was born and grew up in south-west Wales and moved back to Cymru in 2020 to train in public health medicine. I truly love our landscape, culture, people and language and having worked across various parts of our NHS and policy systems now, I am committed to ensuring all of our doctors, medical students and patients get the conditions and care they deserve. 

As a public health doctor, I’m all too familiar with the population health challenges we are facing now and the need for real action on prevention, health equity and the wider determinants of health.
 
I came to the BMA eight years ago as a foundation doctor being bullied for flagging overtime and short staffing, and I’ve never left since. I have worked my way up, starting as a local rep with local wins before going on to become a rep and then officer for resident doctors in Wales and public health doctors at the UK level, standing on picket lines and negotiating better terms and conditions.

I’ve also been fortunate to be involved in our professional work too, including our wider BMA campaign for urgently needed GMC reform and our medical ethics work on key issues, such as assisted dying. I know what we can achieve when we work together and I’d urge all medical students and doctors to consider getting more involved.
 
Your new Welsh council will meet shortly and prioritise our work ahead for the year ahead based on member led policy. This includes our strategic shift to an organising union and campaigning association.

That means growing our membership, better engagement and establishing visible, well-trained representatives throughout your workplaces. I am personally committed to reaching out to our grassroots and under-represented groups, hearing from you, regularly updating your on our work and continuing our journey to a BMA that wins and that we are all proud to be members of.

If you have any ideas or thoughts for the BMA then please get in touch. I look forward to working with you all over the next three years.

Deiniol Jones is BMA Wales council chair