A Newcastle-based junior doctor who has been one of the leading voices representing medics during the ongoing strike action has been suspended by the British Medical Association after offensive social media messages were discovered.
Dr Martin Whyte, formerly deputy chair of the BMA's junior doctors committee and a paediatric registrar at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, has been suspended by the union pending an external independent investigation. He is understood to have resigned his committee role.
Leaders at the hospital where he works have also condemned the "totally unacceptable, deeply offensive and wrong" comments
Dr Whyte has given interviews and spoken at rallies during the two waves of junior doctor strike action so far. However, a Daily Mail investigation unearthed Twitter messages dating to 2018 in which Dr Whyte referred to "gassing the Jews" and suggest a video about the "holohoax" had been "convincing", the newspaper reported. He is also understood to have made jokes about the Queen's corpse.
When the offensive messages were brought to light, Dr Whyte was suspended by the BMA. Though he works at the RVI - operated by the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, the "lead trust" managing junior doctors in our region is the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust.
A spokesperson for the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We condemn the tweets which have been reported in a national newspaper, which are totally unacceptable, deeply offensive and wrong.
"While the doctor works at Newcastle they are not legally our employee. Health Education England in the North East and North Cumbria (HEE NE) have an arrangement whereby all Foundation, Specialty and GP trainee doctors (junior doctors) in the region are employed by one organisation for the duration of their training. The Lead Employer Trust is currently Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
"We have escalated our concerns with the LET who will act accordingly.”
A BMA spokesperson said: "These tweets are totally unacceptable and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms. The views expressed in no way reflect the values of the BMA.
"Dr Martin Whyte has been removed from taking part in any and all BMA business with immediate effect and the BMA will be undertaking an external independent investigation.”
Dr Whyte has not responded to ChronicleLive's request for comment.
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