Sexual Misconduct in Surgery - Let's Remove It

Let's Remove Sexual Harassment

“This behaviour simply must not happen and the culture that has allowed it to happen must be wiped out. Our campaign says, ‘Let’s Remove It’ - we are all in this together and can unite to eliminate sexual misconduct in surgery.” - Clare McNaught, Vice President, The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Welcome to our 'Let’s Remove It' hub. Originally launched in 2017 to tackle bullying and undermining across the surgical workforce, these pages already provide helpful resources and signposting to useful websites on Anti-Bullying and Undermining.

In 2024, we feel it is right that we add more resources to this successful campaign, and use its powerful platform to help eradicate sexual misconduct from our profession. This new element of the #letsremoveit campaign has been launched in response to the alarming findings uncovered by the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery (WPSMS) and the Surviving in Scrubs group, which highlighted the harassment and sexual abuse faced by colleagues in surgery.

This UK-wide campaign, launched by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, is designed to raise awareness of Sexual Harassment and encourage zero tolerance of sexual misconduct in healthcare. We ask clinicians to 'Call it Out' if they witness it.

We hope you will find the following resources helpful:

A library of resources, advice and signposting for support.
Our hard-hitting poster and billboard campaign around UK hospitals.
Our updated Code of Conduct.

Our Code of Conduct will be shared with every member new and old and they will be asked to automatically sign up to the Code. It will affirm the professional behaviours we expect from our members.