After five years of campaigning, and off the back of Daisy tabling legislation for a second time just recently, the government has announced that it will now consult on measures to root out perpetrators of sexual misconduct in the NHS.
The General Medical Council’s (GMC) 5-year rule, prevents the regulator from investigating complaints about a doctor’s fitness to practise if the events – including sexual misconduct – occurred more than five years ago.
Under this rule (Rule 4(5) of the Fitness to Practise Rules 2004) allegations that relate to events more than 5 years old are not usually investigated by the GMC except in rare “exceptional circumstances in the public interest”. This denies justice to victims of sexual assault and harassment and fails patients, as some alleged perpetrators are left unchallenged and able to continue practising in the NHS.
Daisy has campaigned – coincidentally for five years – for the 5-year rule to be scrapped.
In 2021, Daisy was contacted separately by two constituents with different but equally harrowing accounts of sexual misconduct by a medical professional – only to discover that the GMC would not examine the cases due to the policy. After she started her campaign, she heard stories from women from all around the country.
Since then she has tabled parliamentary questions and legislation, led a Parliamentary debate on the issue, and raised awareness through the media, pressing the previous Conservative and now Labour governments to act.
In 2023, it was revealed that almost one in three female surgeons working in the NHS had been sexually assaulted in the past five years, according to a survey published in the British Journal of Surgery.
In 2024, Daisy ensured that the commitment to scrap the 5-year rule was also in the Liberal Democrats 2024 General Election manifesto.
After re-tabling legislation this week, the government published a consultation including the proposal to scrap the time-limit.
Daisy said:
“This could be a major breakthrough for women’s safety and I hope so much, after all my campaigning, that victims, predominantly women, don’t have to wait much longer for change.
“Both NHS staff and patients have been victims of sexual assault by a medical practitioner and shocking reports show that it can happens in all corners of hospital settings – in car parks, in medicine cupboards and shockingly, according to female surgeons, even in surgical wards when they’re operating on a patient.
“There are very good reasons why some victims don’t make a complaint for five years – for example, patients by definition can be severely unwell, and may take years to feel strong enough to make a complaint after their treatment and recovery.
“This arbitrary rule has robbed these women from getting justice, and left other patients and staff at risk when perpetrators can not be struck off.
“I’m incredibly relieved that after my five-year long campaign and tabling legislation for the second time, that the government is finally paving the way to end this appalling scandal.”