Backlash after doctor tells harassed female surgeons to ‘toughen up’
An anaesthetist downplaying sexual assault and harassment has prompted “disgust and dismay” among health leaders who say that it highlights ingrained sexist attitudes in the NHS.
Peter Hilton argued that female doctors needed to “toughen up” in a letter responding to research that found a third of female surgeons had been sexually assaulted by colleagues in the past five years.
His letter, published in The Times on Wednesday, has triggered a widespread backlash from medical organisations and doctors.
Responding in another letter to The Times, leaders from the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine say: “On behalf of our members we write to express our disgust and dismay over comments made by Dr Peter Hilton that doctors subjected to
