Almost one in three female surgeons in the British public health system (NHS) claims to have suffered sexual assault in the last five years, according to a new study.
The report, published by the British Journal of Surgery, It was drawn up from surveys of 1,704 operating theater workers (from surgeons to resident doctors), more than half of them women, and produced findings that have led the Royal College of Surgeons to describe it as “very shocking.”
63% of those surveyed reported having suffered some type of sexual misconduct by their colleagues, a figure that in the case of men rises to 23%.
Almost one in three (29.9%) female surgeons said they had suffered some type of sexual assault, from touching to rape, while 6.9% of men said the same.
The study found that one in ten of those workers had experienced some type of “forced physical contact linked to job opportunities”.