Johann Malawana

Dr Johann Malawana is the Chair of the British Medical Association junior doctors committee.^[1] He is a registrar in obstetrics, qualifying from Barts and The London in 2005.

Malawana led the junior doctors committee to ballot for industrial action following the attempt to impose a new contract on junior doctors by Jeremy Hunt.^[2] The ballot had an unprecedented 76% turnout with 98% voting for full industrial action.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} It would have been the first full walk out of doctors in the history of the NHS^[8] which was stopped on the eve of the first proposed industrial action scheduled for 1 December when further negotiations over a new contract were agreed.^[9] He attempted to focus on the implications of the proposed contract for patient safety, rather than on doctor's pay.^[10] The key issue became the reclassification of weekday evenings and Saturdays as part of the normal working week, not attracting premium payments, and therefore removing the existing disincentive for hospital managers against running non-emergency services at those times. He claims that Jeremy Hunt managed to do something no one else has: unite the medical profession by continually talking about a “seven-day NHS” and misrepresenting data about weekend deaths to win cheap political points.^[11] He helped to establish a junior doctors’ contract group on Facebook which had 62,000 members.^[12]

Career

He was appointed to the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board in 2008-10 and the General Medical Council 2009-12

From 2007 to 2010, after the Modernising Medical Careers and MTAS crisis, he was the Chair of the Education and Training team for Junior Doctors Committee of the British Medical Association. As part of the subsequent negotiations he is credited with devising the first version of the Interdeanery Transfer system.^[13]

In 2004 he was elected the Deputy Chair for Education of British Medical Association Medical Students Committee.

In 2003-05 he was University of London Union Medical Students Officer and founded the London Medical Student Newspaper as part of the campaign around Modernising Medical Careers.

He was president of Barts and The London Students' Association in 2002-03

He previously ran a photography business in his spare time.^[14]

He was named by the Health Service Journal to be the 78th most influential person in the English NHS in 2015.^[15]

Early life

He grew up in Gants Hill, went to Ilford County High School. He is married to a GP, with whom he has a son.

References