Controversy Over Female Doctors in the NHS
For many centuries, men have dominated healthcare. It was once extremely rare to see professional female doctors in even the largest of hospitals but during the last few decades it has all changed. This substantial change in modern healthcare is bearing huge strains, especially on our national healthcare service- the NHS. Education is free to all under 18s in the United Kingdom regardless of their sex and this positive approach to equality and liberty to all has led to both men and women excelling in all sectors. In fact from recent figures, it is evident that women are increasingly becoming the high-fliers in education and workplaces. Since 2001, the number of women working in the medical sector in England has risen by nearly 50%!
Around 70% of all medical students at university are said to be female and the cost of training each and every one of these students is near £250,000. By the time these students have finished their clinical years and got themselves some well-paying jobs they are at least 25 years of age. Starting families is most common around this age in a female’s life and this had led to female doctors becoming pregnant in under a few years of starting their career properly; becoming pregnant of course leads to time being taken off work to look after baby and because of this, these fairly new female doctors end up working only part time in one of the most demanding jobs in the tertiary sector.
Minister of Parliament Anne Macintosh claims that training these female students at such a high cost is not economically viable for the NHS in the long term and this could possibly lead to ‘a huge burden on the health service’. The NHS has already been hit extremely hard by the government cuts, made blatant by the closure of numerous Accident and Emergency departments up and down the country. If most of these fairly young female doctors want to only work part time, the National Health Service may be ‘training what effectively might be two GPs’ in order to cover one full time working GP’s hours. In response to this, senior female doctors have pointed out that thousands of women GPs are in fact working full time in an ‘extremely demanding job’ however this does overlook the proportion of female doctors who are not working full time and may be adding to the un-needed economic pressures on our health service.
Is hiring female doctors beneficial for the NHS in the long term or do you think that when being hired, female medical post-grads should be considered more thoroughly compared to males?
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