Too Many Women in Medicine? Tell That to My Ovaries.
When Will Women Stop Being Blamed for Everything? Apparently Not Today.
Oh. My. Stethoscope.
Just when I thought I’d heard every tired, patriarchal excuse under the sun, along comes retired surgeon Dr Meirion Thomas with his pearls of wisdom from, I’m guessing, the year 1952. He was pontificating in the Independent newspaper. I daresay he knew the likes of me would be coming for him.
According to the good doctor, the real problem with the NHS isn’t underfunding, staff burnout, or the fact that junior doctors are forced to strike for fair pay. No, apparently the root of all evil in healthcare is… too many women. Yep. That’s what’s clogging up the system. Not the layers of bureaucracy, not 14-hour shifts, not crumbling infrastructure. Women. Specifically, women daring to be both doctors and mothers. Scandalous.
Let’s take a little scalpel to this nonsense, shall we?
Exhibit A: “Women have got to have babies”
Ah yes, the biological inevitability argument. Apparently, because women might become mothers one day, we should cap the number entering medical school. What next? Ban men from law school in case they get divorced and emotionally unravel during custody battles?
Dr Thomas suggests we reduce the intake of female medical students to re-balance the gender split, not because of merit, mind you, but because the NHS might lose them to nappies and school runs. Heaven forbid we design a healthcare system that accommodates actual human lives and the audacity of women to want both a career and a family.
Exhibit B: “They work part-time, that’s why patients suffer”
Sir, with all due respect, you’ve clearly not been inside a GP surgery in the last decade. Many of these so-called part-time doctors are pulling 40+ hour weeks, juggling endless admin, patient care, and paperwork that follows them home like a needy toddler. “Part-time” in the NHS is a relative term, and let’s be real, even Beyoncé, with her legendary work ethic, would burn out under those conditions.
Blaming women for the lack of continuity in care is lazy scapegoating. It’s not that doctors are choosing to abandon their patients. It’s that they’re choosing not to abandon themselves. And frankly, who can blame them?
Exhibit C: “Too many women on strike”
Dr Thomas also helpfully pointed out that in one strike photo, only two out of 30 protestors were men. Gasp! Women standing up for better pay and working conditions? Shocking behaviour. Clearly, what we need is fewer empowered women willing to demand change, and more people quietly suffering in silence. That’s how progress works, right?
No.
The Real Diagnosis
What we’re really dealing with here isn’t an overabundance of women in medicine. It’s a chronic case of outdated thinking and male fragility. Women make up over half the GP workforce because they’re damn good at what they do. They’re smart, empathetic, resilient, and yes, sometimes they also want to raise a family. That’s not a crisis. That’s life.
The actual crisis is a system that expects doctors to run on fumes, prioritises political soundbites over patient care, and demonises diversity when it should be embracing it. The NHS doesn’t have a female problem. It has a retention problem, a funding problem, and a leadership problem, often led by people who haven’t been on a ward in years but still manage to talk the loudest.
Final Word (I promise I will shut up after this)
If Dr Thomas is worried about continuity of care, perhaps he should be more concerned about the endless rotation of exhausted junior doctors, not the working mum who’s balancing patients, children, and a broken system.
Newsflash: women aren’t the weak link in medicine. We’re the reason the damn thing hasn’t collapsed already.
End of rant, masquerading as a blog.
