A GP and her colleague have launched a new campaign against NHS workplace harassment.
Dr Becky Cox, an academic GP and specialist, runs ‘Surviving in Scrubs’ with Dr Chelcie Jewitt, who founded a Sexism in Medicine project and prompted the BMA to run a report on the issue last year.
In its report the BMA found that 91% of women doctors had experienced sexism in the last two years and 47% felt they had been treated less favourably due to their gender. Surviving in Scrubs calls for female and non-binary GPs and other doctors to share anonymous stories with the project.
The move comes after the first female leader of GPs in England had to take sick leave following reports of sexist comments. An independent report later found that bullying within the BMA’s GP Committee (GPC) continues to ‘marginalise women and ethnic minorities’.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “Sexist behaviour is a malignancy that should never be tolerated in any context, least of all in the medical profession, and the only chance we have of excising it from our working lives is to call it out wherever and whenever it occurs.
“While numerical data shows us the depressing size of the problem, it doesn’t actually help us tackle the problem, whereas recording qualitative data in the form of actual stories, with their potential emotional impact and power to persuade, in the way that Dr Cox and Dr Jewitt propose, is much more likely to provide us with a way to tackle this problem.
“Being discriminated against in any shape or form can be a hugely stressful event that triggers a GP to change their career path, not unusually to that of a locum, where the individual can isolate themselves from a toxic environment.
“But many locums do find this work isolating, which carries its own problems and challenges, and so it’s important we make sure these individuals can benefit from peer support from other locums can be hugely beneficial. If any of our colleagues feel they’re in this position, they must get in touch with us.”
