For many, the phrase ‘workers’ memorial’ brings to mind heavy industry, construction, or factories. Medicine is not always the first profession people think of when they reflect on workplace death, injury, or long term harm. Yet doctors are workers. We work in complex, pressured and sometimes dangerous environments. The risks we face are often hidden behind professionalism, vocation and expectation.

In my career, I have been privileged to work in HM Armed Forces and my service included a number of deployments on operations. War exposes risk starkly and unavoidably. In conflict, doctors do not work in the background. We are visible. Sometimes we are deliberately targeted. Hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and health workers – once protected by international norms – are routinely placed in harm’s way.

In those environments, nobody pretends the risks are theoretical. Psychological strain is recognised, we are exposed to trauma, death, and moral injury. Protective equipment, contingency planning and threat briefings are taken seriously because the consequences of failure are immediate and obvious.

Yet when we compare this with civilian healthcare systems, many of the hazards present in war do not disappear – they simply take on quieter forms. Long hours, sleep deprivation, emotional overload, moral distress, inadequate protection, and exposure to violence or infection are not unique to conflict. They exist on a different scale everywhere.

If we recognise the need to protect doctors in conflicts, we must recognise our responsibility to protect doctors at home.

In the UK, medicine is often framed as a vocation. That narrative can be powerful and motivating, but it can also be harmful – too often used to justify unsafe working conditions.

Doctors work shifts that would be unacceptable in many other industries. We accept chronic understaffing. We tolerate broken systems. We absorb emotional distress as part of the job. And when harm occurs, it is frequently individualised or minimised.

Occupational medicine offers a different lens – work can be either health enhancing or destroying. Good work sustains wellbeing and supports recovery. Unsafe work causes illness, injury, and long term harm.

The COVID 19 pandemic forced many uncomfortable truths into the open. Doctors, like other health and care workers, contracted COVID 19 at work. Some died. Others developed long term, life changing illnesses. Long COVID has left many doctors unable to work, forced to reduce hours, or requiring ongoing workplace adjustments.

These were work acquired conditions. Yet even now, recognition, support, and compensation remain inconsistent. Many doctors have had to fight to be believed, others pushed out of the workforce altogether. That is not just a tragedy for individuals; it is a systemic failure.

When doctors are treated as endlessly resilient, risks go unchallenged.

Long COVID represents one of the most significant occupational health challenges facing doctors today. The result is visible now in clinics, surgeries, and households across the UK. Highly trained doctors are struggling with fatigue, breathlessness, cognitive impairment, and loss of function. Some will never fully recover.

Occupational health teaches us that prevention matters. The old adage, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ remains true as once harm has occurred, we can mitigate and support, but we cannot turn back the clock. Long COVID should have permanently changed how healthcare thinks about risk, exposure, and staff protection.

Another occupational hazard facing doctors is violence and abuse at work. Verbal abuse is widespread. Physical assaults are not uncommon. Threats, harassment, and intimidation are reported across all healthcare settings. Again, there is an expectation that it comes with the territory so doctors should tolerate it. No other profession is routinely told to accept abuse as normal.

From an occupational health standpoint, workplace violence is unacceptable. It increases the risk of psychological trauma, sickness absence, and staff turnover. It undermines safety for patients as well as staff.

Workers’ Memorial Day is not just symbolic. It is political, practical, and urgent. For doctors, it offers a moment to reflect on our profession, our colleagues and how we can enhance occupational health. It offers a way to honour colleagues who have paid a heavy price for doing their job, including those lost to war, the pandemic and those whose careers or health have been permanently altered.

The trade union movement’s message – remember the dead, fight for the living – applies as much to medicine as it does to any other sector.

Today I will be thinking of colleagues lost to COVID 19 or living with long term illness and colleagues on the brink of burnout. The best way to honour them is not with words alone, but with meaningful change.

Doctors keep patients safe every day – it is time we were equally committed to keeping doctors safe at work.

Kathryn McKinnon is BMA occupational medicine committee chair