Three candidates have declared they are standing for election as the BMA’s Chairman of Council.
June 2007
- Dr Tony Calland, a retired GP on the Welsh borders, is presently chairman of BMA Wales as well as chairman of the BMA’s Ethics Committee
- Dr Sam Everington, a GP from East London, has been the BMA’s deputy Chairman of Council for the last three years and is currently acting chairman*
- Dr Hamish Meldrum, a GP from East Yorkshire, is chairman of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee
Nominations for Chairman of Council opened on 11th May 2007 and closed on 12th June 2007. All members of Council are eligible to stand for Chairman.
The initial term of office is three years.
Biography of Dr Tony Calland
Born in Colchester and brought up in Southport ,Tony Calland started his medical career in Liverpool . He qualified from the medical school in Liverpool in 1970 and did house jobs at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary before going to the department of anatomy as a demonstrator.
Initially hoping to pursue a career in surgery, he changed his mind after doing some general practice in the deprived areas of Toxteth and Walton.
This decision brought him to the Wye Valley after jobs in Malvern and Worcester. He spent 34 years in general practice on the Welsh border. He retired from his practice at the end of last year but remains qualified to do locum work in general practice.
He has been a member of the Gwent LMC, the Gwent family practitioner committee, health authority, local health board and many BMA committees. Also, chair of Gwent LMC, GPC Wales and Monmouthshire Total Purchasing Pilot. He was a member of the GPC negotiating team for the new general medical services contract.
Biography of Dr Sam Everington
Sam Everington is a GP in the East End of London (Healthy Living Centre 2000, Beacon Practice 2001, first National Children’s Centre 2003). The centre recognises the holistic approach to health and health care, and includes more than 100 social enterprises - art therapies, employment advisers, internet café, community care and educational courses.
Sam was a director of Partnerships for Health UK and is a qualified Barrister.
In 1999 he received the OBE for services to inner-city primary care, and in 2006 the World Family Doctors (WONCA) Europe international award of excellence in health care.
In 1989 he led the junior doctors’ media campaign and has co-authored a number of articles in the BMJ on discrimination in the NHS, for which he received a national award.
He was adviser to members of the Shadow Cabinet (1991-97) (no active party role since then), founder and medical director of a GP out of hours co-op (1996-99) and an NHS commissioner for CHI (1999-2004).
Biography of Dr Hamish Meldrum
Hamish Meldrum has been a GP in Bridlington, East Yorkshire since 1978 and remains active in clinical practice despite his 2004 election to the GPC chair.
He graduated in Edinburgh and started his medical career in a general medicine, spending three years as a medical senior house officer and medical registrar in Torbay Hospital in Devon before moving to general practice.
He finished his vocational training in Harrogate, before joining what was initially a two-man practice and has now expanded to three-doctor whole-time equivalent size.
He has been involved in local hospital management and was chairman of the East Yorkshire LMC from 1996-99.
He was part of the GPC team that negotiated the new general medical services contract and is keen to ensure that UK general practice builds and improves on its reputation for delivering high-quality, effective primary care to its patients.