By Lucy Caulkett-
Female doctors have launched an online campaign addressing shocking gender-based discrimination, harassment and sexual assault in healthcare.
The campaign has called for the General Medical Council (GMC), which regulates doctors, to openly denounce sexist and misogynistic behaviour towards female colleagues and “treat them with respect”.
Insiders claim sexist behaviour is common in the Nhs and needs to be rooted out in the profession, but worryingly, harassment is also alleged to be a commo occurrence in the profession.
A 2021 survey from the BMA reported 91% of women doctors had experienced sexism in the last 2 years and 47% felt they had been treated less favourably due to their gender. Over half of the women (56%) said that they had received unwanted verbal comments relating to their gender and 31% said that they had experienced unwanted physical conduct.
The campaign published by The Guardian today reveals some of the simply unacceptable and distasteful.“
One doctor anonymously told of a shocking story in which an inappropriate comment was made in relation to her breasts.
She said: ”Meeting with my educational supervisor during which I informed him I was pregnant. He said he had thought that might be the case because my breasts were much bigger than they had used to be. I was speechless and nervously laughed it off. Could feel my face burning from embarrassment. Found it challenging to focus on the rest of the meeting without constantly fixing my clothing to keep myself covered.“
Another said : “Having just reviewed a sick patient in ED I popped back up to discuss with the Consultant on call. He had the rest of the team – more junior doctors around the desk beside him. He told me to sit down next to him and I started to discuss the case. He called me ‘missy’, put his hand on my thigh and slid it up with his thumb on the inside. This would not have happened to a man.”
Another told of a male matron who makes unwanted sexual advances to junior staff, and targets those who turn down them down. Another spoke of unwanted comments about her hair, features, and whether they had gained weight or not.
The comments posted in the story section of Surviving in Scrubs are trying to tackle sexism, sexual harassment, and sexual assault in healthcare. The highlight some of the dangerous levels of sexual harassment women are subjected to in some professional environments.
The campaigners do not state what actions were taken to address the unwanted behaviour in terms of complaints, or whether the police was ever informed. In that regard, the resistance offered by offended victims has not been stated.
Harassment in various work places are disturbing, bit nothing new. Not enough has bene done to address them in the past.
Failings
At an annual meeting in Brighton a fortnight ago, members passed a motion that it was union was ‘failing to value and support female members and members from minority groups including BAME, IMG (international medical graduates) and locum doctors’.
Leaked documents revealed that the British Medical Association’s union leader(BMA0, Dr Jameel, was forced to take a leave of absence in March, partly because of the committee’s toxic culture.
The union is investigating the claims and has recently been taking steps to address such claims of discrimination after it published an independent report following allegations by two female doctors that they had been subjected to sexism and sexual harassments by BMA officials.
More than 40 stories have been shared on the campaign’s website, ranging from sexual harassment by patients to inappropriate remarks and sexual advances from supervisors.
Other stories include doctors facing sexual harassment from patients. “I did not feel safe at work,” said one doctor, who when seeking advice from a male colleague whose role it was to advise of such issues was told: “There is nothing I can do other than to eat 10 doughnuts every night.”
The campaign is bolstered by evidence that shows 91% of female respondents had experienced sexism at work within the past two years. The findings are a result of nearly 2,500 surveyed doctors working in the NHS – the majority of whom were women – published in a 2021 report by the British Medical Association (BMA).
The report found 84% of all respondents said there was sexism in the medical profession, and 61% of women felt they were discouraged to work in a particular specialty because of their gender.
The report was a result of a two-year effort started by Jewitt, then a junior doctor in emergency services, in collaboration with the BMA. Male and female respondents said they felt the main driver of sexism in the medical professional was a result of individual views and behaviours, followed by structural and institutional factors.
Following the report, Latifa Patel, the acting chair of the BMA’s representative body, and a doctor, said: “There is no place for sexism in society. If we want to eradicate it, we all have a part to play. It’s going to take a concerted effort, and it won’t be quick to fix, but sexism must stop.”
While the BMA report stopped short in detailing cumulative ways other forms of discrimination such as racism and classism overlap, the campaign wrote on Twitter: “Sexism in the healthcare workforce is intersectional. Race, disability, sexuality, ethnicity, class, gender all interlink to create a multitude of experiences. Sexism doesn’t exist in a vacuum.”
Colin Melville, the GMC’s medical director and director for education and standards, called the accounts of assault “harrowing and appalling”, adding: “There can be no place for misogyny, sexism or any form of sexual harassment in the medical profession.”
The current consultation on GMC’s guidance for doctors set out a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment, said Melville. It sets out for the first time that any form of abuse or discrimination is unacceptable, and includes a requirement for doctors to act and support others if they witness or learn of harassment.