Early last month I chaired a webinar co-hosted with GHP (Global Health Partnerships) on the continuing attacks on healthcare in Myanmar since the military coup in 2021. Our aim was not only to highlight the persecution of healthcare workers but also to recognise their extraordinary resilience and commitment to caring for patients despite immense personal risk.
The webinar left me with much to reflect on. For those who couldn’t join us, here are some moments that stayed with me.
Thinn Hlaing, GHP’s Country Director for Myanmar, opened by setting the scene. Being from Myanmar herself, she described her country as the ‘Golden Land’, referring to the temples for which it is famous.
She touched briefly upon how decades of political instability and underinvestment had already stretched Myanmar’s healthcare system. The military coup in 2021 pushed it into crisis, with many healthcare workers refusing to work under the military-run health ministry or hospitals, and many facing arrest, imprisonment, or even death simply for fulfilling their duty to treat all patients according to their clinical need. She shared harrowing statistics and stressed that the true casualty figures are likely even higher than those officially reported.
On top of these unrelenting attacks on healthcare, the Burmese healthcare system and population had to endure the pandemic, mass displacement, and a devastating earthquake which together nearly broke its healthcare system. Yet healthcare workers have persevered. They continue to provide care, often without pay, resources, or protection. Healthcare workers in Myanmar now operate grassroot medical units, with 106 hospitals, 808 clinics, and 192 mobile clinics; staffed by over 5000 healthcare professionals who fled from military run institutions.
Ben Simms, chief executive of Global Health Partnerships, reinforced that message. He shared his visit to a hospital in a non-military controlled area, where patient numbers had risen from just over 100 a month to more than 1,000. Specialists had become generalists out of necessity: oncologists treating shrapnel wounds and delivering babies because there were no alternatives.
He emphasised something that I had not fully appreciated before: the strength of the long-standing partnership between UK and Myanmar healthcare professionals – a collaboration which was not destroyed, but actually reinforced by the coup. This continued partnership – to share knowledge, training, and support – is laying the foundations for Myanmar's future healthcare system.
The final part of the webinar had the most profound effect on all those who were there, when we heard from healthcare workers on the ground; their identities kept anonymous for security reasons.
A surgeon working at a makeshift field hospital described consecutive attacks on the village and hospital. Images showed the hospital walls blown apart, and surgical and other medical equipment thrown across the floor. Others showed how the building structures of the outpatient and x-ray departments were torn apart due to strikes. Staff were forced to relocate to safer locations and create clinics in jungles, and struggled with shortages of antibiotics, malaria medication, and basic dressings.
Another doctor spoke about leaving postgraduate training to escape to a liberated area, where they continued to care for patients in a refugee clinic after refusing to work under the military. They described fleeing persecution, leaving family behind and carrying the personal grief of being unable to be near or care for loved ones during the pandemic. It was a stark story; one of the sacrifice and pain, to their own person and their family, that accompanies standing up for one’s country and freedoms.
We also heard from nurses who faced difficult ethical decisions before leaving military-controlled hospitals to continue providing care elsewhere in pop up clinics outside of junta-controlled areas. Despite studying and working in conflict conditions, they spoke with remarkable optimism and continued studying for their degrees under a novel model of nursing education. It was inspiring to hear that these challenges strengthened the resilience of nursing students and reinforced the pillars holding up nursing education and nursing practice.
I left the webinar with immense admiration for our Burmese colleagues. They continue to care for patients, despite facing repeated violations of international humanitarian law and medical neutrality, and in circumstances most of us can scarcely imagine.
What struck me was not only the courage of these healthcare professionals but also how much many of us take for granted. In the UK, we can go to work without fearing arrest or attack. We have medicines, equipment, functioning hospitals, and the reassurance that our families are safe while we care for patients.
What is happening in Myanmar is one theatre of a global trend where healthcare is increasingly seen as a legitimate target in conflict, despite this being illegal under international law. The BMA has consistently raised concerns about this the last few years. I closed the event by highlighting the BMA's report, Medicine Under Attack: The Increasing Assault on Healthcare in Conflict Zones, sharing recommendations for governments, medical organisation, and more. This report and our work on Myanmar continue the BMA's long and proud history of advocating for health-related human rights across the globe, both in peacetime and in war.
It is troubling that we still need to talk about attacks on healthcare in Myanmar, five years on from the military coup. For us in the UK, the message from every speaker was the same: Myanmar is too often overlooked. We can all help by listening and raising awareness. One voice may seem small, but together we cannot be ignored.
As Dr Hlaing said, healthcare workers in Myanmar may run out of resources, but they will never run out of their will to keep going, even if it costs them their lives.
So my closing message here echoes hers: don't forget Myanmar. Show solidarity. Speak out. Knowing the international medical community stands with them matters.
Andrew Green is chair of the BMA medical ethics committee
Further resources:
https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/five-years-of-perseverance-amidst-oppression-and-attacks
https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/Blogs/how-myanmars-nursing-students-reached-graduation
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/24/myanmar-healthcare-system-health-doctors