Speech from the Chairman of the International Committee
Dr Edwin Borman
Tuesay 29 June 2004
Later this morning (motion 275), we are due to talk about whether the BMA’s prime objective should be the unstinting pursuit of its members’ interests. I am not sure what the proposers have in mind but, looking at the motions in our own section, I am struck by just how diverse and how global RB members’ interests are. The International Committee and International Department certainly think globally, but we act locally, working across both the “trade union” and “professional” sides of the association. We can’t solve all the world’s most intractable problems overnight from our offices in Bloomsbury, but we take a pragmatic approach, playing to the BMA’s strengths and identifying areas where we most constructively can make a difference. What we do is determined and driven by our membership, by you.
Over the last year we have continued to work with a broad coalition to help refugee and asylum-seeking doctors to resume their careers in the UK. Many are now working in the NHS or are at the job ready stage – and, with the European Working Time Directive for Junior Doctors looming, we certainly need them. We have been in contact with the Department of Health, Department of Work and Pensions, Department for Education and Skills and the Home Office to encourage joined-up government. We also continue to press the Home Office about the many problems BMA members experience with the immigration system, emphasising how much the NHS owes to its diverse workforce.
Through our Brussels office we continue to lobby on the wide range of issues now determined at European level. I reported last year that we had achieved a tremendous breakthrough in our long campaign to achieve mutual recognition rights for doctors with EU citizenship but non-EU primary qualifications. I am particularly delighted, because I fall into this category myself and it’s always a pleasure when corporate and personal agendas coincide. The draft legislation in question is still working its way through the EU legislation process. Many other aspects have been controversial, and we have campaigned hard on them, but this particular change (to cover doctors in this position who have been in practice for three years or more in an EU member state) is a major step forward for us.
I hesitate to mention the new EU Constitution, but the Government can be happy that they secured their red lines at the recent European summit - and so can the BMA. When a questionable clause was introduced at the last minute spotted by our man in Brussels, Kevin Doran. I wrote to the Irish Presidency - in charge of the Inter-Governmental Conference - to point out that the Constitution could dramatically increase EU competence in public health matters. I am pleased to say that the constitution now gives a clearer idea of what the EU's role is in health policy.
At the global level we are taking forward our Strategic Grant Agreement with the Department for International Development and have set up a Poverty and Health Policy Group to enable us to work with a range of experts in this area. We are supporting research on the skills drain from developing countries and are also keen to draw on the experience of our own members who have worked in such countries – those of you who want to know more, please speak to Martin Carroll on the Registration Desk. We worked with the Department of Health to administer its Humanitarian Fund, supporting NHS teams working abroad in areas of need, and were struck by the breadth of work going on out there, unsung until now. At the instigation of our President, Sir Brian Jarman, the BMA has endorsed the World Health Organisation’s “3 by 5” initiative, aiming to get 3 million people with AIDS in resource-poor countries into treatment by 2005. Acting very locally, we were delighted to persuade the association to switch to fairly traded tea and coffee at all its meetings.
The last year has been one of great upheaval in Iraq. The BMA has held to the principle of helping where it is possible and appropriate. We have talked to and worked with many different organisations and individuals over the last year to identify what we can best do to support our professional colleagues in Iraq. This has included donating consignments of books to medical schools there, working with the Department of Health and British Council, and printing a special edition of the journal of the Iraqi Medical Association (UK) for distribution to doctors in Iraq. What we do may not always be headline-grabbing, but we have taken every opportunity that has presented itself within the inevitable constraints posed by the situation there at the moment.
I want to keep my speech brief, but the International Dept has prepared briefing papers on all the main issues covered here. The work of the International Committee would not be possible without the efforts of our excellent secretariat, led by Sallie Nicholas, and those of the committee in which I am ably supported by Kate Adams, our deputy chairman.
Chairman, I move …