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 ex
NHS trusts and integrated care boards have been told by NHS England to review their policies for handling cases of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse of staff and patients and to consider adopting dedicated policies on sexual safety.
The action followed an investigation by The BMJ and the Guardian in May, which found that NHS trusts were failing to protect staff and patients from sexual assault and harassment,1 prompting medical colleges and healthcare unions to urge the government to act immediately. A series of requests made under freedom of information legislation showed that, despite trusts recording more than 35 000 cases of rape, sexual assault, harassment, stalking, and abusive remarks on their premises between 2017 and 2022, just one in 10 trusts had a dedicated policy on how to deal with …