Sexual predator NHS doctors target vulnerable medical students during training, campaigners warn

Medical schools have been urged to protect students who face sexual assaults and “sinister” behaviour from senior doctors, who see them as easy targets, campaigners have warned.

Scores of students have come forward with stories of doctors, groping them and making inappropriate comments while they are being trained in hospitals, according to the campaign group Surviving in Scrubs. The group, which aims to address sexual harassment facing medics in the NHS, has raised new concerns over vulnerable students who it says are facing abuse while on training placements in hospitals, It is urging NHS and university leaders to protect vulnerable trainees.

Becky Cox, a GP and founder of Survivors in Scrubs, told The Independent: “When they’re out on placement qualified doctors will make inappropriate comments about their appearance and more sinister behaviours, there was a student who was sexually assaulted in the car on the way to the placement. The power dynamic is much greater for students. By and large, this is senior doctors perpetrating this. Medical students are right at the bottom of the food chain, and we feel they are specifically targeted and because the perpetrators know there is very little the students can do to challenge the behaviour, they’re unlikely to raise a concern.”

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Source: The Independent, 24 July 2024