How many more people will be abused before we act on sexual violence in healthcare?

Abstract

Failures to record, investigate, and act on cases of sexual harassment and abuse in healthcare have enabled perpetrators, but three sanctioning mechanisms can help tackle this, writes Rosalind Searle

This Me Too moment shames the NHS

“…Jimmy Savile’s crimes show the vulnerabilities of NHS premises (doi:10.1136/bmj.p1094). 2 But, as with Hollywood, unless you interrogate the system it will continue to protect the abusers, and the NHS is no different from any other field: entertainment, education, finance, sport, churches, and politics. Campaigner Simon Fleming, an orthopaedic surgeon, tells us that, in the case of sexual offences, what you permit you promote; it’s the responsibility of all of us to hold predators to account (doi:10.1136/bmj.p1117).…”