A doctor involved in a protest that involved damaging petrol pumps on the M25 using a hammer and orange spray paint has had his medical license suspended. The incident was part of a Just Stop Oil demonstration.
Dr. Patrick Hart, a general practitioner turned climate activist, claimed he was acting out of a ‘moral duty’ to ‘protect life’ when he obstructed vehicles from accessing the motorway service station during the protest.
Currently serving a 12-month prison sentence for his role in this protest, Dr. Hart has maintained his stance, expressing no regrets over his actions.
In court, Dr. Hart drew parallels between his actions and those of historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, emphasizing his commitment to the cause.
Despite his convictions, a tribunal has suspended Dr. Hart from practicing medicine for 10 months, citing his ‘disregard for potential harm and public safety’ during the protest.
At the time of the demonstration, Dr. Hart was actively working as a GP at Bridge View Medical Practice located in Bristol.
The protest at Esso Services on the M25 led to the closure of the forecourt, leaving three quarters of the petrol pumps were out of action for 24 hours.
Dr Hart took a hammer and chisel and cracked the display panels of 16 Esso petrol pumps in Thurrock, Essex.
Dr Patrick Hart, a GP with the Bridge View Medical group in South Bristol, took a hammer and chisel and cracked the display panels of 16 Esso petrol pumps in Thurrock, Essex
Just Stop Oil claimed it had blocked three service stations on the M25 at the time, and said its ‘supporters blocked access to the petrol pumps by sitting in the road with banners’, and ‘some supporters also sabotaged petrol pumps by breaking the display glass, covering them with spray paint or locking on’.
Hart has been involved in some of the UK’s most high profile direct action protests with Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil over the past few years.
In May 2023, he invaded the pitch during the Premiership Rugby Final at Twickenham and threw orange-coloured cornflour around, as part of a wave of Just Stop Oil protests at major sporting events at the time.
He was later found not guilty of causing criminal damage to the pitch at Twickenham.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal was told that on August 24, 2022, Dr Hart had prevented cars from entering a petrol station, which breached a High Court injunction and amounted to contempt of court.
For this offence, Dr Hart was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for four years.
On October 29 last year, he was then convicted of causing criminal damage worth £11,000 at the same petrol station during the protest.
On January 7, he was then jailed for one year.
Dr Hart was also convicted of aggravated trespass on land which was being used for storage and transportation of fuel in November 2022 at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court, and his sentence for this offence was a fine of £500.
Activists from protest group Just Stop Oil blocked the entrance to the Esso after damaging pumps at the filling station at Thurrock Services on the M25 in Essex in 2022
The judge said that Dr Hart had ‘shown no remorse, and stated he was in no doubt that Dr Hart would reoffend’.
The group said that Dr Hart told the court at his trial: ‘I have been penalised at work and stand to be suspended or lose my licence to practise as a doctor.
‘But I regret nothing.
‘Because to not do it, would have been to give up on caring, and that would be worse.
‘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, regardless of what happens.
‘Yes, I fear prison, but I am ready to go if I must.’
The GP had also ‘climbed onto pipework at height’ at another petrol station in April 2022, for which he was on bail when he carried out the August protest.
He was fined £500 for that offence.
In May 2023, Hart invaded the pitch during the Premiership Rugby Final at Twickenham and threw orange-coloured cornflour around
Dr Hart referred himself to the General Medical Council (GMC) in September of that year.
The tribunal heard: ‘Dr Hart gave an extensive account of climate science, describing the current situation as a time-critical planetary emergency, with accelerating warming, mass extinctions and catastrophic consequences for health and civilisation.
‘He said governments and wealthy societies had failed to meet legal and moral obligations under international climate agreements.
‘Dr Hart linked this to professional and moral duty, arguing that as a doctor he felt compelled to act to protect life.
‘He compared his actions to historic examples of doctors who broke laws for social justice, such as suffragists and 19th century reformers contending that similar civil disobedience was now necessary given the urgency of the crisis.
‘Dr Hart also reminded the Tribunal of actions taken by figures such as Martin Luther King Junior and Nelson Mandela.’
He told the tribunal that people in prison ‘could not believe that his conduct merited a custodial sentence’, and his ‘actions had been targeted at property not at people’.
The doctor added: ‘Dr Hart submitted that some of his actions are said to have been shocking and were required to be so as society was sleep walking into disaster and catastrophe so there has to be some level of surprise and subversion, something outside of what is normally expected to happen in order for you to become impossible to ignore and in order for your point to get across.’
Dr Hart also said his actions were ‘mild mannered’ when put in the context of ‘the permanent irreversible collapse of your economy and civilisation as a whole’.
The tribunal found that ‘his position as a doctor was explicitly linked to the conduct, as he sought to use his status to amplify the shock value of his actions’.
It said that he assured them he ‘will not break the law’ after he finishes his prison sentence.
However, the tribunal found Dr Hart’s fitness to practise was impaired because of misconduct and his convictions.
It said that he ‘lacked insight into the seriousness and consequences of his actions’ because of the location and nature of the protest.
The choice of location, which included ‘the presence of flammable materials, emergency vehicle access, and members of the public in proximity’, demonstrated a ‘disregard for potential harm and for public safety’ according to the tribunal.
‘The protest was not peaceful in nature, as it involved premediated and deliberate damage to property with the use of a hammer,’ it added.
It found that there were no concerns relating to Dr Hart’s ‘clinical competence or the quality of care he provided to his patients’, and he had continued to work until November 2024.
The doctor has been suspended for 10 months following the GMC tribunal.
He is due to be released from prison in January next year.
