Hopes of ‘culture shift’ following report into sexism in NHS

A top doctor has said she hopes a new report into sexism in the NHS will cause a “culture shift” in the service.

The British Medical Association (BMA) published the Sexism in Medicine report on Thursday, following a survey of more than 2400 medics.

Some 9% (221) of the respondents were from Scotland and 70% of those said there is a problem with sexism in the NHS.

According to BMA Scotland, more than 65% of respondents said they believed their career had been held back, at least in part, by sexism.

Dr Patricia Moultrie, the deputy chairwoman of BMA Scotland, said: “The Sexism in Medicine report has presented us with the stark reality of what many doctors are living with on a daily basis, gender-based discrimination has no place in our health service and the figures from this recent survey make for challenging and uncomfortable reading for everybody.

“The report goes some of the way to highlighting the detrimental impact that sexist behaviour is still having on the medical profession, preventing people from entering particular specialties, impacting on their health and wellbeing and discouraging them from living the work life balance they want and need.

“We can only hope that shining a light on these poor behaviours will allow for a cultural shift to a more equal, diverse and inclusive NHS.”

Dr Moultrie added: “This survey focuses only on sexism and gender-based discrimination and there is much more work to be done on understanding the experiences of those who can receive multiple forms of discrimination.

“It is clear from this report that many women see their gender as a barrier to career progression; over 65% of Scottish respondents feeling that sexism has acted as a barrier to career progression, 38% feel they have had fewer opportunities in training than colleagues of a different gender and half believing that their career progression has been negatively impacted by their gender.”