* Thirty per cent of female surgeons who responded said they had been sexually assaulted.
* Results showed that 63.3 per cent of female surgeons and 23.7 per cent of male surgeons had been the target of sexual harassment by colleagues.
* Nearly 90 per cent of women and 81 per cent of men who responded claimed they had seen sexual misbehaviour in the previous five years.
OVER one-third of female surgeons employed by the NHS experienced sexual assault in the previous five years.
The head of the Women in Surgery group claims that the survey is the “#MeToo moment for surgery”.
Eleven incidents of rape were reported by surgeons who participated in the research, which was published in the British Journal of Surgery and shared with the BBC and The Times.
A lack of confidence in organisations like the NHS Trust, the General Medical Council, and the Royal Colleges to address the issue was also discovered by the survey.
Researchers from the University of Surrey and Exeter University analysed anonymous online survey responses from 1,434 surgeons (51.5 per cent of whom were women).
The survey asked about their experiences of sexual misconduct, such as sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape, among surgical colleagues in the past five years.
Responding to the report Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers part of the NHS Confederation said: “Sexual misconduct in the workplace has absolutely no place in the NHS, or in wider society, and its incumbent on all to take action to eliminate it, including employers, professions and trade unions. One person experiencing sexual misconduct is one too many.
“The authors of this report have done a hugely important service to their colleagues, workplaces and patients. The experiences reported by women working in surgery challenge their colleagues and employers to do better for all their employees.
“It is important to note that NHS organisations have policies regarding workplace harassment and violence from the public and these policies will also cover sexual misconduct. As well as this the NHS recently launched its sexual safety charter which enforces a zero tolerance approach to any inappropriate or harmful sexual behaviours.”
Results published in the British Journal of Surgery on Tuesday (12) showed that 63.3 per cent of female surgeons and 23.7 per cent of male surgeons had been the target of sexual harassment by colleagues.
Thirty per cent of female surgeons who responded said they had been sexually assaulted, 29 per cent of women had experienced unwanted physical advances at work, more than 40 per cent had received uninvited comments about their body and 38 per cent received sexual “banter” at work.
Nearly 90 per cent of women and 81 per cent of men who responded claimed they had seen sexual misbehaviour in the previous five years.
The report concludes: “Sexual misconduct occurs frequently and appears to go unchecked in the surgical environment owing to a combination of a deeply hierarchical structure and a gender and power imbalance. The result is an unsafe working environment and an unsafe space for patients.”
In May, a Guardian/British Medical Journal investigation discovered that during the previous five years, more than 35,600 “sexual safety incidents” had been reported in NHS hospitals in England.
The General Medical Council responded by urging doctors to have “zero tolerance” for sexual harassment.
Subscribe for our weekly news letter here!
You can unsubscribe us at any time
