14 Sep Finding of widespread sexual misconduct in NHS operating theatres is unsurprising, says Stephen Dorrell
FORMER Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell has said that he is not surprised that researchers have discovered that sexual misconduct in the NHS operating theatres is widespread.
He was commenting on a paper published in the British Journal of Surgery which found that 30% of female surgical staff have been sexually assaulted in the past five years.
Mr Dorrell told GB News: “I wish I could say it came as a total surprise. Unfortunately, I can’t say that, because we know repeatedly through the health service, that there are too many instances.
“I could quote mid-Staffordshire, I could quote the Bristol baby scandal. There are too many examples within the health service…
“Across the health service, this is a culture question. Should managers be open for this kind of story and should they react to it, to which there is only one answer, and of course the answer is yes.”
In a discussion with Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner, he continued: “You quoted the instance of this woman surgeon who was in effect sexually assaulted during surgery. What was going on around that operating table?
“He wasn’t even the most senior surgeon, according to the press reports, who was doing that? What on earth was going on in the professional community, in that operating theatre where people must have seen what was going on?”
He added: “It is totally inconsistent with good medicine, or with any professional code of conduct. And so you’re right to say there’s an issue here for management – of course there is.
“I also think there’s an issue here for professional regulators because every person in that operating theatre, from the most senior surgeon to the nurses and the other professional staff who were in that operating theatre, every one of them had an obligation to report that incident, to raise concerns.
“Presumably none of them did.”
