The president of the Royal College of Surgeons is making a call for more women to pursue a career in surgery. One of the country’s top female doctors has warned that there are not enough women surgeons. Clare Marx, president of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS), will caution that she is worried about the “inability” to attract women to a career in surgery. The consultant othopaedic surgeon said that failure to attract more women to the field could lead to poorer quality of care for patients. At an event to mark International Women’s Day, the Women in Surgery conference at the RCS, Marx will say: “Surgery used to be one of the most sought-after medical specialties. “Yet our failure to attract sufficient and growing female trainee numbers is a factor behind why we are now attracting fewer overall candidates into surgery. “Unless we can reverse that trend and encourage and support more women to access surgery as a career, we risk reducing our choice from the talent pool. Eventually that has the potential of reducing the quality of care that patients receive.” Marx, the first female president of the RCS, will add: “If surgery continues to be seen as a male dominated discipline and women choose not to apply, we really will be fishing in an increasingly small pond.” While 57% of doctors in training are women, only 30% of surgical trainees and 11% of consultant surgeons are female, she will tell delegates. She will also warn of a similar situation in dentistry where only 24% of dentists are women. To combat this, there must be a change in the “culture and perception of surgery”, the notion that a surgical career makes greater demands on work-life balance than any other medical career must be challenged and “all male short lists” for interview panels and conferences should be banned, she will say. Source