Updating the General Medical Council’s Good Medical Practice guidelines is a positive step towards confronting sexism and sexual misconduct in healthcare, but reporting and support for survivors and witnesses must improve, write Chelcie Jewitt and Becky Cox
Sexism and sexual harassment and assault are uncomfortable to talk about in any environment. But in the past few years, the medical community has started to raise its voice to confront this damaging culture that permeates the whole of healthcare. The latest update to Good Medical Practice sees the General Medical Council (GMC) introducing guidance on these forms of sexual misconduct for the first time. After much campaigning, this is a sign of progress, but we must remember that there is much more work to do to stop these behaviours.
Since the BMA’s Sexism in Medicine report was published in 20211 we have gained some idea of the prevalence of these problems—91% of female doctors have experienced sexism in work and 31% have experienced unwanted physical misconduct. These figures show how widespread sexual misconduct is in medicine. More research is needed to formally …