Women make up just 6.2% of surgeons working across the UK’s five largest private hospital groups, compared with 16.9% in the NHS.
Neurosurgery had 2.3% of consultants who were women, with some providers listing no women neurosurgeons at all, while in trauma and orthopaedic surgery, women made up just 2.2% of consultants.
The research was published in The Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Authored by Kate Hulse (clinical research fellow) and Caitlin Brennan (trauma and orthopaedic registrar), it shows that across all specialties, female representation in private practice is substantially lower than in the NHS.
In most specialties, it remains below NHS levels recorded as far back as 2012.
In two of the five largest hospital groups, there are more orthopaedic surgeons named David than there are women in the same specialty.
RCS England has written to the five largest independent hospital groups in the UK, calling on them to take action to ensure the surgical workforce in their hospitals reflects the profession’s diversity and talent.
While women remain under-represented in surgery across both NHS and independent settings, the disparity is significantly greater within the independent sector across almost every surgical specialty.
The research raises serious concerns about women’s access to surgical careers in the independent sector and suggests that long-standing structural barriers may still determine who can enter and succeed in independent practice.
RCS England suggests that the independent hospital groups should:
• Publish transparent gender data
• Set targets to increase women’s representation
• Invest in programmes that support women entering surgery
• Guarantee fair access to leadership and progression
• Enforce robust policies that ensure safe, inclusive workplaces free from discrimination and harassment.
Professor Felicity Meyer, consultant vascular surgeon and chair of Women in Surgery (WinS) at RCS England, said: ‘The independent sector now delivers a growing share of surgical care, yet women remain strikingly underrepresented within its surgical workforce. RCS England’s own work has repeatedly shown that this is not just an issue of fairness, but one that affects the resilience, safety and sustainability of the profession as a whole and ultimately impacts patient safety.
‘Surgery is an immensely rewarding career, but too many barriers still shape who is able to enter, progress and lead. Removing these obstacles is essential if we are to attract and support the full breadth of surgical talent that the future workforce depends on.’
To support women in surgery, RCS England has introduced a national mentoring scheme for women entering the profession and surgically focused return-to-work workshops.
Its Emerging Leaders Programme provides dedicated leadership development for women in surgery, and recent governance reforms ensure that at least one vice president role will always be held by a woman, guaranteeing representation at the highest level, they say.
