Trainees are being abused by senior male surgeons, a major analysis given to the BBC reveals.

Sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape have been referred to as surgery’s open secret.

There is an untold story of women being fondled inside their scrubs, of male surgeons wiping their brow on their breasts and men rubbing erections against female staff. Some have been offered career opportunities for sex.

The analysis - by the University of Exeter, the University of Surrey and the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery - has been shared exclusively with BBC News.

Nearly two-thirds of women surgeons that responded to the researchers said they had been the target of sexual harassment and a third had been sexually assaulted by colleagues in the past five years.

Women say they fear reporting incidents will damage their careers and they lack confidence the NHS will take action.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
    34·
    1 year ago

    Surgical tech, here.

    Um… What the fuck? NHS, you need to get your shit together.

    I’ve only worked in US military/civilian hospitals, so I can’t speak on the NHS, but in the US at least there’s no ‘open secret’ of sexual assault in surgery. At minimum you’ve got a surgeon, anesthesiologist, nurse, and tech in the room, so if any one of them tries to assault one of the others, it’ll be in plain view of two witnesses.

    We’ve definitely got a few relics from another era (old perverts who constantly push boundaries), but even they know better than to try to do something physical. X-rated ‘jokes’ directed where they aren’t welcome is another story, but those aren’t some ‘open secret’ that we just tolerate, either: fucker’s getting told off and written up.

    Surgeons especially are notorious for having a short temper and shit social skills, and HR won’t raise a fucking eyebrow over Drs creating a hostile work environment in pretty much any way -other- than sexual. But a sexual harassment/assault complaint? I’ve seen two of those put in (both at a private civ hospital, two different surgeons/incidents) and both times HR intervened that day. Wish I could have been a fly on the wall for those conversations, cuz whatever they threatened did the trick - surgeon was absolutely walking on egg shells from there on.

    If there’s any open secret it’s “different spanks for different ranks” - if the accused was a nurse or tech, they’d be fired on the spot, where Drs are given much more leeway / second chances, but that difference is much more narrow when it comes to sexual harassment/assault.

    The only way I can think they might get away with that shit is if no one’s reporting them, so if you see it, FUCKING SUBMIT A COMPLAINT TO HR.