Samantha Batt-Rawden

Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden is an intensive care doctor and President of The Doctors' Association UK. Batt-Rawden is best known as a doctor for Good Morning Britain (2014 TV programme) as well as a freelance author for The Guardian, The Independent and Metro (British newspaper)|Metro. 
== Medical career ==
Batt-Rawden trained at the University of Bristol. In 2014 Batt-Rawden chose to specialise in emergency medicine however left the speciality, citing burnout and staff shortages in a BBC Radio 4 documentary she presented. She currently works as an intensive care specialist as well as an air ambulance doctor. Batt-Rawden also has roles within the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine with a seat on the Women in ICM committee and blogs for the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
== Advocacy career ==
Batt-Rawden founded The Doctors' Association UK in 2018 following the premature birth of her son at 27 weeks, requiring a 3 month stay in ICU. Batt-Rawden says this experience has made her determined to fight for the NHS. 
Batt-Rawden had a prominent role during the Hadiza Bawa-Garba case and gave evidence to Parliament on creating a just culture in healthcare. 
First appearing on Good Morning Britain (2014 TV programme) in 2018 to discuss the Alfie Evans case, Batt-Rawden is now a regular guest. She also frequently appears on This Morning (TV programme)|This Morning and Sky News. 
== Role in the pandemic ==
As an intensive care doctor as well as the President of the Doctors' Association UK, Batt-Rawden became a key voice in the pandemic. Batt-Rawden was one of the first doctors to break rank and raise concern in Evening Standard in February 2020 that the NHS was not 'well prepared' for the pandemic despite Government protestation that it was. Later a message from Batt-Rawden to Boris Johnson was projected onto Westminster by Led by Donkeys. 
Batt-Rawden spoke publicly a number of times to raise concerns regarding a lack of PPE, and later a lack of fit testing and scrubs presenting evidence to Parliament. She also worked to shine a light on lack of testing for both staff and patients. During the pandemic Batt-Rawden highlighted that staff were being 'gagged' from speaking up about conditions on the frontline especially in regards to PPE shortages. This forced NHS England to write to all trusts to confirm that staff must be free to speak up. 
Through campaigning Batt-Rawden had an influential role in securing Death in Service benefit for NHS staff and for the Health Service Surcharge to be scrapped, after her letter to the Home Secretary was read in Parliament by Keir Starmer|Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions. She has continued to advocate for NHS staff and their wellbeing during the pandemic, raising a concern that NHS will leave at the end of the pandemic if they are not well looked after now. 
In between the first and second wave Batt-Rawden raised multiple concerns that lessons had not been sufficiently learnt to prevent a resurgence of cases and admissions. She gave evidence to the All-party parliamentary group|All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus in September 2020.
Leading the Protect the Frontline campaign Batt-Rawden argued that NHS staff should be prioritised for the vaccine have spoken up publicly about staff sickness rates for many months. 
Recently Batt-Rawden has been raising concerns regarding the abuse of NHS staff on social media and in person. This prompted Batt-Rawden to start the viral campaign #NHSblueheart. 
== Research ==
Batt-Rawden's research is in the empathy in medical professionals, Post-traumatic stress disorder|PTSD and moral injury on which she has published a number of papers. Batt-Rawden also gave a TED (conference)|TED talk on these subjects as well as exploring her journey with her son whilst he was in intensive care.
Category:21st-century English medical doctors
Category:Alumni of the University of Bristol