The 2025-26 BMA public health medicine committee met for the first time on 22 October, kicking off my second year as chair of the committee. There was a good mix of members returning from the previous year and some new faces. We also took the opportunity to co-opt additional members and observers to fill in any gaps in our expertise, particularly in local government and on equality and diversity. I look forward to working with them all.

With the NHS Ten-Year Health Plan for England, the ongoing pay disputes across the UK and the imminent publication of a further report from the COVID Inquiry, there was much to talk about. I was also able to report on PHMC’s contribution on behalf of public health doctors to both the BMA’s evidence to the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration and the BMA’s budget submission.

As I am sure you are aware the Ten-Year plan provoked the calling of a special representative meeting by the BMA. This had a significant focus on public health, being covered in the chair of council’s opening remarks, raised in a question to the secretary of state and debated in a motion submitted by the committee and moved by Chad Byworth, now deputy chair for workforce and regulation. As Chad noted in the meeting, the motion was well-received by the SRM and had been passed unanimously. A key task of the committee over the next few months is to build on that success.

We then moved on to discuss the workforce plan due to follow on from the Ten-Year Plan, engaging with the team leading the BMA response to the UK Government’s initial consultation.

The response would have a focus on public health, call for ambitious plans to retain the existing workforce and to act on medical unemployment whilst maintaining standards of medical education. The committee asked for more emphasis on expanding the workforce outside the NHS and on the threat posed by the employment of population health staff who had not gone through public health specialty training.

As part of this wider discussion, we considered the more immediate threat to public health posts of the proposed merger of NHS England with the Department of Health and Social Care. We heard from colleagues in NHS England that morale was very low with an apparent lack of care for a hurting workforce. 

There was little hope of improvement with progress on the merger being slow and no funds yet identified for redundancy payments. Unsurprisingly, the Ten-Year Plan was being given little priority. Members also expressed concern that public health training could be disrupted due to a loss of staff and an unwillingness to put in the extra discretionary effort required. It was agreed that these issues should be raised with the secretary of state.

Added to these concerns are the ongoing state of flux in integrated care boards and the continued under-funding of public health in local authorities and the failure to stick to NHS pay and terms and conditions, making working in a local authority an unattractive proposition for many public health doctors. I hope to work closely with our colleagues in Unite and the other local authority trades unions to highlight our concerns and work towards the restoration of NHS medical and dental contracts.

A key part of our agenda is to receive updates from members of the BMA’s population health policy team and to feedback on and input to their work. The ongoing issues we heard about this time were children’s mental health, the BMA survey of doctors on the NHS and net zero, the road safety strategy owing to be published by the UK Government and COVID-19.  

The BMA is beginning to prepare for the launch of the report of Module 2 of the COVID inquiry in November on which the views of the committee were sought.  We also discussed the recent COVID wave, the JCVI decision on the vaccination of healthcare workers, long COVID and the dismantling of community surveillance programmes, which has limited the capacity to make informed decisions. Work on all these issues is ongoing.

The committee also received updates on the pay disputes and negotiations in each of the four nations of the UK and discussed how public health doctors could be best represented locally. The general consensus was that the best structure was through the local negotiating committees but if you have any other views or suggestions, please contact us on [email protected]

Finally, the committee was updated by conference chair Deiniol Jones on progress with the 2026 BMA public health medicine conference due to be held on Thursday 19 March 2026 with the theme of rebuilding public health. Do put the date in your diary and look out for further information in the next couple of months. It looks to be an interesting and inspiring day.

 
Heather Grimbaldeston is chair of the BMA public health medicine committee