Medical students demand action against ‘pervasive culture of sexual harassment’

It was 2am and Charlotte Buttercase, a final-year medical student at Manchester University, was fast asleep when the phone rang. There was no caller ID, but she answered because she thought it must be an emergency. On the other end of the phone was a man making intimidating and sexually suggestive comments. Three others were sniggering in the background. She told him this was sexual harassment and put the phone down.

The next morning she went into the hospital where she was training and “tried to put on a brave face”, but she was on “high alert” because she suspected that the call had come from one of the other trainee doctors. “I felt like my back was incredibly exposed,” she said.

Buttercase, 24, posted a message on the year group’s WhatsApp chat, quoting French rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot’s declaration that “shame must change sides” and asking whether anyone else had experienced something similar. By the end of the day she had received more than 70 responses, including 15 women who had also received late-night calls.

At least 30 Manchester medical students have now told Buttercase that they too have experienced sexual harassment or assault during their time studying. On the same night that Buttercase was telephoned – 16 April 2026 – another eight women also received anonymous calls. “In total, they placed 16 calls across 22 minutes. Some people got as many as four calls – I was around number five on their list,” said Buttercase.

Other students described being physically harmed and sexually assaulted. Some cases are being investigated by the police. “There’s stalking behaviours, there’s threatening behaviours, there’s intimidation and harassment,” Buttercase said.

“Women don’t know where to turn and they feel that there’s a precedent of this kind of behaviour being allowed. There’s a high level of empathy for the perpetrators and their potential, but the same isn’t being applied to the victims of their behaviour.”

More than 1,000 people have signed an open letter to the university’s vice-chancellor, Duncan Ivison, describing a “pervasive culture of sexual harassment”.

Buttercase said sexual misconduct was rife in the medical school. “It is an elitist self-perception of: ‘I’m above the rules, I’m different to you. I’m a doctor. I’m not just a student, I’m a medical student.’”

She worries that the four men involved in the late-night call she received “could soon be qualified doctors who were seeking some kind of pleasure from sexually harassing female colleagues. They could be going anywhere in the country. They could even be starting on a job like obstetrics and gynaecology. It’s entirely possible they will be seeing fragile and vulnerable women in some of their most difficult moments.”

Manchester University has launched an investigation and promised to act against those found guilty of misconduct. Prof Ashley Blom, vice-president and dean of the faculty of biology, medicine and health, said the issues raised were “deeply concerning” and would be treated with the “utmost seriousness”.

But there is a wider problem. A recent survey by the Office for Students found that 40% of medical students had experienced sexual harassment and 23% had suffered sexual assault. Among the general student population, more than 24% had been harassed and 14% had been assaulted.

The General Medical Council (GMC), the independent regulator, is so worried that it has written to all medical schools in the UK, reminding them of their responsibilities to keep trainee doctors safe. “Students should be clear that reporting sexual misconduct, harassment, abuse or other concerns will not raise questions about their fitness to practise,” the letter sent this month from Prof Pushpinder Mangat, the GMC’s medical director said. “Behaviours such as sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and discrimination are incompatible with the values expected of future doctors.”

Only 11 out of 52 medical schools around the UK have signed the NHS’s sexual safety in healthcare charter.

Last year, a survey of medical students by the British Medical Association and the campaign group Surviving in Scrubs found low levels of confidence that sexual misconduct would be dealt with properly. Victims chose not to report the alleged offence in 67% 0f cases, while 60% said they did not have faith in their school’s ability to respond to a future incident, and 84% said they believed sexism was a problem in medical education.

Prof Carrie Newlands, a consultant surgeon and co-leader of the independent working party on sexual misconduct in surgery (WPSMS), said medical students were particularly vulnerable and needed greater protection. “Individuals who are most dependent on senior colleagues for training and progression are more likely to be targeted and often feel least able to speak up,” she said.

Tim Mitchell, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, urged the government to introduce an independent anonymous reporting mechanism for all NHS staff, including those training to be doctors. “Medical students must be able to train in environments that are safe and free from sexual misconduct,” he said. “They can’t be allowed to fall into an accountability gap between medical schools and NHS trusts.”

The health service has been struggling to get a grip on sexual misconduct among medical staff. A 2023 survey commissioned by the WPSMS found that two-thirds of women working in surgery had been sexually harassed by a colleague at work, nearly a third had been sexually assaulted by a colleague and there were 11 instances of rape.

Female surgeons report that some male doctors have a “God complex” and believe they will not be challenged.

Photograph by Jon Super for The Observer