Dr Amit Kochhar: key facts
- Kind of voice
- Union
- Role
- Chair of the Representative Body
- Organisation
- British Medical Association (BMA)
- Organisation based in
- Holborn and St Pancras
- Quoted on
- NHS & care workforce/staffing, Hospital discharge / bed-blocking
- Tracked press citations
- 2
- Most recently quoted
- 30 Sept 2026
- First quoted
- 27 Aug 2026
Who Dr Amit Kochhar is
Dr Amit Kochhar is an Associate Specialist in Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) surgery and Chair of the Representative Body of the British Medical Association (BMA), one of the four Chief Officers of the organisation, elected at the Annual Representative Meeting in June 2025. He is the first international medical graduate to hold this position. He has been active in the BMA since 2005, previously serving as Chair of the BMA SAS (specialist, associate specialist and specialty) doctors committee from 2014 to 2019, Deputy Chair of the Representative Body from 2022 to 2025, and as a member of the team that negotiated the new SAS contract. He is known for championing the rights and recognition of SAS doctors, opposing grade-based discrimination in medicine, and publicly arguing for increased NHS medical staffing levels and against over-reliance on AI as a substitute for doctors. He has received multiple awards including the BMA Association Medal and the BAPIO Doctor of the Year award in 2020.
“We will wait to see the full plan, but it is crushingly disappointing to see government apparently planning to simply accept that the low number of doctors we have in this country is just a fact of life. No one disputes that AI can be helpful to doctors. What they do dispute is the idea that doctors can be replaced by it. A chatbot cannot look after a patient.”
References for this biography
- 1.Amit Kochhar elected as BMA representative body chair – BMA media centre — Confirms election as Representative Body Chair at ARM 2025, clinical specialty (ENT Associate Specialist), and former SASC chair role
- 2.Leadership at the BMA — Establishes current role, first IMG in position, BMA involvement since 2005, SAS committee chair dates, Deputy Chair dates, BMA Association Medal, and clinical employer (UHMBT)
- 3.A fairer future – progress for SAS doctors – BMA — Documents his co-initiation of the 2019 SAS contract negotiations as co-chair of the BMA SAS committee
- 4.UHMBT doctor receives 'Doctor of the Year' award from BAPIO – University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust — Confirms BAPIO Doctor of the Year award 2020 and his base at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay
- 5.BMA opposes AI being used to supplant doctors in NHS plan – Personnel Today — Press coverage of Kochhar as BMA representative body chair arguing against AI replacing doctors and for higher NHS medical staffing
- 6.NHS Staff Survey findings 'paint a disturbing picture', says BMA – BMA media centre — Confirms public-facing press role responding to NHS Staff Survey 2026 as representative body chair
- 7.Supporting UK graduate prioritisation, working for IMGs – BMA — Authored article confirming current role as RB chair, his IMG background, and his stated policy positions on medical training prioritisation (July 2026)
- 8.Contact us – BMA — Confirms BMA head office address as BMA House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JP; directs press to BMA media centre
Notable achievements
- Elected Chair of the BMA Representative Body in June 2025 — the first international medical graduate to hold this Chief Officer position. Source ↗
- Co-initiated the 2019 SAS contract negotiations as co-chair of the BMA SAS committee, leading to a new SAS contract for specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors. Source ↗
- Named BAPIO 'Doctor of the Year' in 2020 in recognition of leadership promoting the contribution of SAS doctors to the NHS at local, national and regional level. Source ↗
- Received the BMA Association Medal, the association's own award for outstanding service. Source ↗
- Served as Deputy Chair of the BMA Representative Body from 2022 to 2025 before being elected Chair. Source ↗
What Dr Amit Kochhar has said
“Doctors who trained abroad have long made up a significant sector of the NHS workforce, and medical care in the UK would have long since withered away without them. But as we warned last month along with other trade unions, a sustained campaign of anti-migrant rhetoric is leaving many doctors with a migrant background considering if it is worth staying.”
Chair of the British Medical Association's representative body · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · Overseas-trained doctors leaving the UK in record numbers ↗
Where Dr Amit Kochhar has been quoted
- BMA opposes AI being used to supplant doctors in NHS planpersonneltoday.com · 30 Sept 2026
- Overseas-trained doctors leaving the UK in record numberstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
Related media coverage
Recent UK press coverage of their topics — not necessarily citing them directly.
Contact & links
- Staff pagehttps://www.bma.org.uk/about-us/about-the-bma/how-we-work/leadership-at-the-bma
- Websitehttps://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre
Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.
Officers of trade unions and professional associations speaking for a workforce. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. This profile was last updated on 5 Oct 2026. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.