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Doctor who led British Medical Association's opposition to kids' puberty blocker ban elected as its new leader
The doctor who spearheaded the British Medical Association's opposition to the UK's puberty blocker ban has been elected as its new leader.
Dr Tom Dolphin tabled the motion that led to the union controversially lobbying against the findings of the Cass Review into children's gender services.
The BMA's governing council sparked fury in July last year when it voted to 'critique' the work, without consulting wider members.
This set the BMA apart from the NHS, government and other leading medical organisations who universally backed the study, which took four years to complete and reviewed data from 113,000 children.
Key among the recommendations was a ban on prescribing sex hormones to trans-identifying children outside of clinical trials.
Critics described the BMA meeting where the vote took place as 'secretive and opaque'.
The same council, consisting of 69 members, this week voted to oust sitting chair Professor Phil Banfield and replace him with Dr Dolphin.
A source said: 'This shows the dominant ideological forces currently at play within the BMA. In order to get on, you have to embrace this way of thinking.'
The BMA set up a rival 'task and finish group' to evaluate the methodology used by Cass and write a critique which they said would be completed by January.
However, the report has still not been produced six months after the initial deadline and more than 1,000 members have now signed a letter calling on the union to 'abandon the pointless exercise'.
Critics say the BMA is ill-equipped to match the rigour of the Cass review, which was published in April 2024, and describe the union's efforts as a 'waste of money and staff time'.
Senior doctors warn that the BMA - which represents 190,000 doctors - has alienated itself, is 'no longer a democratic organisation' and has made itself 'irrelevant' after being taken over by 'ideologues and interest groups'.
They highlight that the BMA leadership has consistently failed to select motions relating to the Cass Review at annual conferences, including that held in Liverpool this week, meaning gender-critical members are silenced.
Meanwhile, topics including the Israel-Gaza conflict and climate change have been prioritised for debate.
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at human rights charity Sex Matters, said Dr Dolphin's election as chair 'shows how gender ideology breaks previously respectable organisations'.
She added: 'The Cass Review is a comprehensive, evidence-based report on so- called gender medicine for children by an independent paediatrician with impeccable credentials.
'Creating doubt around it without robust evidence is irresponsible, misleading, and not in the best interests of patients.
'We've said before that the transactivist doctors at the BMA are an embarrassment to their profession.
'Their false assertions about biology can be disproven with primary school science.
'Giving them this level of credibility could have serious consequences for the health and wellbeing of vulnerable children and young adults.'
Dr Dolphin is a Labour activist who previously boasted of charging the NHS £1,870 for a single shift.
He made the extortionate sum covering for picketing colleagues during previous industrial action and donated it to the BMA's strike fund.
Writing on X at the time, he said the war chest 'supports people to strike, meaning the strike is stronger and the win will come sooner'.
Dr Dolphin has campaigned alongside hard-left MP John McDonnell and been the election agent for Dawn Butler during previous general elections.
He also finds time to promote woke cases, including trans issues and veganism.
Writing on social media in 2019, Dr Dolphin said: 'This election has really got our membership engaged and working together to bring in a new, different, Labour government.'
In July 2022, he posted photos of himself at a Trans Pride march, adding: 'About to set off to let London know that trans rights are human rights!'
He has described Brexit as a 'failure' and 'one of the worst foreign policy decisions by the UK in decades'.
The union this week passed a motion at its annual conference urging members to offer patients 'identity-based care', despite warnings this risks going against the law on single sex spaces.
It follows the Supreme Court ruling in April that the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act 'refer to a biological woman and biological sex'.
Dr Dolphin is an anaesthetic consultant, who has been a member of BMA council since 2012 and lives in London with his husband.
He vowed to continue the union's fight for higher pay rises for doctors and said: 'I will empower BMA members so that everywhere that doctors work and medical students study, they know that they are stronger together, and the exploitation and erosion of our profession is stopped.'
Commenting on delays to the union's Cass 'critique', a BMA spokeswoman said: 'The original draft Terms of Reference (ToR) that were shared with Council suggested that the Task and Finish Group would report back in January.
'This was removed whilst the ToR were still in draft and has therefore not been an objective for the project, but the Group's chair has continued to give updates to Council.
'This is an extremely complex report to undertake.
'We want to be as sure as we can be that data collection and analysis processes are as rigorous and robust as possible; this requires time, rather than be rushed.'
