Three doctors will go head to head in an election to become the head of the British Medical Association.

The three candidates are current consultant committee chair Mark Porter, a consultant anaesthetist at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire; Tyne and Wear GP and former BMA representative body chair George Rae; and medical academic staff committee co-chair Michael Rees, professor of cardiovascular studies at Bangor University.

The election comes as the BMA is in a bitter dispute with the government of plans to reform the NHS Pension Scheme. Doctors will take their first industrial action since 1975 on 21 June.

Current chair Hamish Meldrum will step down later this month with BMA members voting for his successor after the close of the BMA annual representative meeting in Bournemouth on 28 June.

Only voting members of the BMA council will be able to take part in the election.

The chair of the BMA is elected for a minimum of three years and they can be elected annually for a maximum term of five years. Dr Meldrum has been chairman of BMA Council since June 2007.

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