The BMA has elected Dr David Wrigley as the new deputy chair of its GP Committee for England.
The BMA announced today that Lancashire GP partner Dr Wrigley will complete the GPC executive officer team, sitting alongside chair Dr Farah Jameel and fellow deputy chairs Dr Kieran Sharrock and Dr Richard Van Mellaerts.
The appointment comes as Dr Wrigley’s term as deputy chair of the BMA Council finished in June.
Dr Wrigley – who is a former regional GPC representative and current Morecambe Bay LMC vice chair – was voted in as deputy chair by members of GPC England and will hold the role for an ‘initial maximum term of three years’, the BMA said.
He was also deputy chair of BMA Council for five years from 2016-17 and from 2018-22.
Dr Wrigley said: ‘I am delighted to have been elected as deputy chair of GPC England and look forward very much to working with the officer team, the GP committee, the wider BMA and LMCs across the country.
‘This is a pivotal moment for GPs with the profession on its knees due to a crushing daily workload, an ongoing workforce crisis and grossly inadequate resources to safely care for our patients. I am very keen to reach out and hear from GPs and LMCs across the country about their concerns for their profession.’
Dr Wrigley was also recently among the candidates to replace Dr Chaand Nagpaul as BMA Council chair.
He succeeds Doncaster GP Dr Dean Eggitt as a GPC executive team member, who resigned in March amid the fallout around the new GP contract updates, saying his ‘desire to have a normal family life’ is incompatible with the role.
The GPC’s latest email bulletin set out that ‘following a recent decision at GPC England, the GPC England executive team, made up of a chair, a deputy and two executive team members, has become the GPC England officer team, made up of a chair and three deputies’.
‘This brings the leadership structure of GPC England further in line with what is standard practice at the BMA and ensures parity of esteem between the officer team’ but ‘will not impact the function of the team’, it added.
It said that the vacant position would be ‘elected to ensure democratic accountability’ with BMA members eligible to stand.
Four candidates put themselves forward for the position, it added.
The BMA also today announced the election of a GP as its new chair of Scottish Council.
Inverness GP partner Dr Iain Kennedy will take up the post at the end of this month for a three-year term, succeeding current chair Dr Lewis Morrison.
Dr Kennedy has been an elected member of BMA Scotland for almost 14 years sitting across a number of committees including the BMA’s UK Council, Scottish GP Committee, UK GP Committee and Scottish Council, the BMA said.
He was also the lead whistleblower on bullying culture which led to the Sturrock Review of NHS Highland, it added.
