TY - JOUR T1 - Political views of doctors in the UK: a cross-sectional study JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 880 LP - 887 DO - 10.1136/jech-2018-210801 VL - 72 IS - 10 AU - Kate L Mandeville AU - Rose-Marie Satherley AU - Jennifer A Hall AU - Shailen Sutaria AU - Chris Willott AU - Kielan Yarrow AU - Keerthi Mohan AU - Ingrid Wolfe AU - Delan Devakumar Y1 - 2018/10/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/72/10/880.abstract N2 - Background Little is known about the political views of doctors in the UK despite doctors' importance in the functioning of the National Health Service (NHS).Methods This is a survey-based, cross-sectional study in which we asked questions about voting behaviour in 2015 and 2017 UK general elections and 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union (EU) (Brexit), and questions relating to recent health policies.Results 1172 doctors (45.1% women) from 1295 responded to an online survey. 60.5% described their political views as ‘left-wing’ and 62.2% described themselves as ‘liberal’. 79.4% of respondents voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum compared with 48.1% of voters as a whole (χ2=819.8, p<0.001). 98.6% of respondents agreed that EU nationals working in the NHS should be able to remain in the UK after Brexit. The median score for the impact of Brexit on the NHS on a scale of 0 (worst impact) to 10 (best impact) was 2 (IQR=1–4). Most respondents agreed with the introduction of minimum alcohol pricing in the UK (73.9%), charging patients who are not eligible for NHS treatment for non-urgent care (70.6%) and protecting a portion of national spending for the NHS (87.1%). 65.8% thought there was too much use of NHS-funded private sector provision in their medical practice. Specialty, income and grade were associated with divergent opinions.Conclusions UK doctors are left-leaning and liberal in general, which is reflected in their opinions on topical health policy issues. Doctors in the UK voted differently from the general electorate in recent polls. ER -