A paper published in the February edition of the Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) points out that surgery could be missing out on some of the best graduates. It highlights the fact that, although women who apply for surgical training are proportionately more likely to be appointed than men, surgery remains a predominately male profession.
RSC reports that women account for 55% at medical school, yet only 7% of consultant surgeons. The paper, ‘Surgical training: still highly competitive but still very male’, written by Mrs Scarlett McNally, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Eastbourne District General Hospital and chair of Opportunities In Surgery, found that female applicants were statistically more likely to get onto training programmes. The paper analysed all applicants to surgical training in England and Wales over a two year period. It found that, while 29% of applicants to basic surgical training were women, 31% of appointees were female, suggesting women performed better in the application process than men. Women’s success rate was even greater in higher surgical training: in one year (2008) only 16% of applicants were women, making up 22% of appointees. Mrs Scarlett McNally, said: “Surgery needs the very best doctors and this means ensuring everything is being done to encourage the widest pool of applicants. Given that the majority of those qualifying from medical school are women, to ensure the best possible surgeons in the future it is essential that a surgical career is seen as an attractive choice to both sexes.” The paper also reported an attrition rate, with the 25% of the female applicants for basic surgical training dropping to 15% for higher training. It takes five years to train as a doctor and a further ten to train to the level of consultant surgeon. The paper speculates that the years of postgraduate training coinciding with the years of child-rearing may be a factor in dissuading female doctors from remaining in surgical training. However, Mrs McNally points out that the NHS offers supervised structured training, maternity pay and support and the option of part-time training on return.
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