Sexual harassment in medicine is a serious problem which needs to be stamped out entirely. Some might already have seen the recent BBC news piece in which the highly inflammatory comments made by Dr Peter Hilton anaesthetist from Pembrokeshire made, which include,
“Bullying happens. Sexually inappropriate comments and actions do occur,” he said.
“All I can say is that if they want to make a success of this rewarding career then they should toughen up. Perhaps four A*s at A-level are not the answer to all the problems they will face.”
Dr Peter Hilton from Pembrokeshire wrote a letter to The Times referring to a “snowflake generation” of young doctors who “should toughen up”.
It comes as a new study found female NHS surgeons reported being sexually harassed, assaulted and raped. The survey found 88% of doctors thought there was sexism in the NHS and called on the organisation to educate people against discriminatory behaviour.
It highlighted a pattern of trainees being abused by senior male surgeons.
The report, entitled Breaking the Silence, was written by the University of Exeter, the University of Surrey and the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery.
Read the BBC News article >>
Female doctors vulnerable to sexual assault due to hospital work environments, expert says
Closer to home, A/Professor Louise Stone of ANU coordinated a symposium on sexual harassment in the medical profession.
Read The Guardian article >>
‘My world is broken, and will never be the same’: Sexual abuse of doctors by doctors
“In 2014, I looked after a junior doctor who was sexually assaulted by her boss.”
Read the AusDoc article >>
Source main article (published 14 Sept 2023, BBC) and Photo Credit (Getty Images)
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
