Walking towards the entrance to the conference centre, I couldn’t help but smile at the signs that welcomed reps from across the UK. ‘ARM 2024’ in tall, floor-to-ceiling text, and ‘ARM 2024 BMA’ in smaller font above the door. As the elected representative for my division, I could take part in the important and at times seemingly elusive work of the BMA. Here, my voice would amplify the voice of my colleagues; through debate and engagement, lively discussions and passionate speeches, we as representatives could make real change happen for our esteemed yet beleaguered profession.
Like many UK doctors, my first introduction to the BMA was a free pen and lanyard I received at the BMA table during freshers’ week. Over the following years, the BMA faded in and out of relative importance in my life, taking on greater prominence during 2016 and from 2022 onwards. By 2022, I had qualified, worked through the COVID pandemic, and witnessed problems all around me that no one seemed interested in fixing in any meaningful capacity.
My pay as a resident doctor felt inexplicably insufficient compared to the responsibility I shouldered after all the training I had done. When I started emergency medicine training in 2022, I spent the first several months of training looking at every possible avenue to help make a difference and no one seemed interested.
I tried getting involved in QI at my trust, speaking to consultants, managers, and even attended a working group day for my trust with a management consulting firm. We spent the day going through various team building exercises and I left feeling less heard than when I arrived. Deflated, I responded to the BMA’s call for pay activists.
Over the next two years, I led the full pay restoration campaign work at my hospital, organised pickets, ran for regional committee office and for my local division, liaised with other reps across the region and nationally. I started to organise with DoctorsVote and found myself surrounded by intelligent, passionate colleagues who wanted the same thing as I did: decisive, positive change for our profession. What initially started out as putting posters up in the mess had evolved into having a front row seat (well, a seat in my region’s assigned section) at the biggest medico-political event in the UK.
I had a voice, a vote. My vote for or against a motion carried as much weight as that of the BMA chair. If I wanted to speak for or against a motion, I would be given the same amount of time as a consultant. I could say as little or as much as I wanted to my peers in private conversation or up on the podium.
At ARM, far removed from the free pen I received years ago, the BMA had burst to life and took on new meaning in my mind. It became more than the body that could negotiate my contract – I saw it embody the aspirations and hopes we all hold for our profession.
With this new perspective, I am keenly aware that it only exists due to the participation of the membership. I am so proud of the work I have been able to do over the last two years and I would encourage anyone who is interested to get involved and see their unio in action.
ARM was inspiring on multiple levels – not only seeing our union at work but also my colleagues speaking their minds and defending their beliefs. Having strong female voices at the top table talking about breastfeeding was something I had never seen before and was so glad to see. It’s so important that we hear a range of voices at ARM, and I hope to see greater representation of women, and other marginalised groups, in future years.
Jinnie Shin is a member of the resident doctors committee