Patients and medical colleagues of Dr Patrick Hart, will gather for a vigil at Cascade Steps in Bristol on Saturday, 29 March at 11am. Dr Hart, a Bristol GP of eight years and doctor for eleven years, is currently serving a twelve-month prison sentence for climate protest.
Dr Hart is the first doctor in the history of the UK to face such punishment, causing widespread global concern, drawing particular attention from the UN Special Rapporteur for Environment Defenders, Michel Forst, who has written to the UK government. The event aims to highlight the severity of his sentence, calling attention to the increasing criminalisation and detention of doctors globally challenging unjust laws.
Support for Dr Hart
Dr Romola Pocock, a GP and former colleague at Bridge View Medical Practice said, “I cannot think of a colleague with greater integrity, either personal or professional. The shock and sadness felt and expressed by Pat’s patients, the clinical and administration staff at the surgery on hearing the news of his incarceration is testimony to Pat’s care, commitment and compassion for his patients. As a doctor he took his responsibility to protect his patients and the wider community from harm very seriously. Doing everything in his power to prevent a climate emergency is a necessary extension to this care.”
Former Mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson added, “As a society we face a pivotal question. Will history remember doctors who stood against the destruction of the health of our planet as criminals, or as ethical leaders who fulfilled their duty to protect life? We should celebrate Bristol’s history of protest – and all those willing to take personal risks for the greater good.”
Dr. Hart was sentenced on 7 January 2025 at Chelmsford Crown Court after being convicted of criminal damage in October 2024. His conviction relates to a protest action in August 2022, when he and another protester used a glass-break hammer and orange paint to damage 16 pump screens at an Esso petrol station on the M25. The prosecution stated the repairs cost £10,000 and that the station, owned by ExxonMobil, lost sales while the pumps were inactive.
At sentencing, Judge HHJ Mills asked if he would take similar action again. Dr Hart replied, “I’m not prepared to lie to you. I can’t predict what form it will take, but as long as I have breath in my body, I will continue to resist fossil fuels and the death that they are bringing to human beings and life on Earth.”
Dr Hart’s sentencing raises urgent ethical questions: when corporations knowingly endanger public health, should doctors remain silent, or do they have a duty to act? ExxonMobil, the parent company of Esso, has been aware of the severe health and planetary consequences of fossil fuel use since the 1970s, based on its own internal research. Yet the company has invested millions in disinformation campaigns and lobbying efforts to delay climate action. Meanwhile, doctors like Dr Hart, who act to protect public health, face criminalisation.
Medical suspension and tribunal hearing
In addition to his prison sentence, Dr Hart has now been suspended from practising medicine for 12 months following a ruling by the General Medical Council (GMC). The decision, made on 19 March, is an interim suspension ahead of a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing, which could result in a longer suspension or removal from the medical register.
Although the tribunal acknowledged there were no concerns about Dr Hart’s clinical abilities, the GMC argued that suspension was necessary to maintain public confidence in the profession. However many in the medical community, including fellow doctors and the British Medical Association (BMA), have raised concerns about whether doctors should face professional sanctions for peaceful activism unrelated to their clinical work.
A BMA spokesperson stated:
“The climate crisis is a health crisis. Doctors like Patrick Hart find it very difficult to understand why their ability to practise medicine could be suspended because of nonviolent actions they take in protest of the climate crisis.”
A doctor’s duty to protect public health
Dr Hart has consistently maintained that his actions are motivated by his duty as a doctor to protect public health. In his closing statement at trial, he defended his actions:
“I do not feel guilty for what I did. I believed then, and I believe now, that it was the right thing to do. It was the carefully considered action of a responsible citizen. In times of great peril, a caring person has to stand up for what is right. I disrupted people as an act of care. I damaged the petrol pump screens as an act of care. Because in the face of the permanent collapse of our climate, our economy, our society, and life on Earth, the only thing that keeps me going is our continued capacity as people to care.”
Dr Hart has been both acquitted and convicted multiple times for nonviolent direct action linked to the climate crisis. In 2023, he was acquitted of criminal damage after throwing orange cornstarch powder on the pitch at Twickenham Stadium during a rugby match to protest climate inaction.
Citywide community support and calls for action
The vigil at Cascade Steps will give members of the local community an opportunity to stand in solidarity with Dr Hart and to call for stronger action on the climate crisis. In November 2018, Bristol was the first UK Local Authority to declare a climate emergency.
Patients and Medical Colleagues are encouraging the public to:
- Join the vigil at 11am Saturday 29 March at Cascade Steps, Bristol.
- Write to their MP to defend the right to peaceful protest and demand urgent climate action.
- Contact the Royal College of GPs (info@rcgp.org.uk) to ask for a statement in support of Dr Hart.
- Email the Justice Secretary (shabana.mahmood.mp@parliament.uk) to oppose severe sentencing for nonviolent protestors.
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