Third of female surgeons assaulted by a colleague

One in three female NHS surgeons have been sexually assaulted by a colleague in the past five years. Ninety per cent of women – and 81 per cent of men – who responded to the largest survey of its kind in the surgical profession said they had witnessed some form of sexual misconduct. There were 11 instances of rape reported in the study, which surveyed 1,434 registered surgeons and is being published in the British Journal of Surgery. Prof Carrie Newlands, consultant surgeon from the University of Surrey, told the BBC that the most common scenario was a junior female trainee being abused by a senior male colleague, often their supervisor, resulting in a “culture of silence”. One female surgeon described a supervisor wiping his sweaty brow on her breasts during surgery. Another theme: the female surgeons had no faith in their NHS trust or medical body to protect them.

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