Gender inequality in medicine having profoundly negative effect

An IMO survey has found that female doctors are disproportionately affected by issues including childcare, gender discrimination and gender-based harassment

Cultural change: The IMO is seeking to promote more family-friendly work flexibility, awareness parental rights, and modernisation of medical training.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has warned that the significant scale of gender inequality in medicine is having a "profoundly negative effect" on the health system and is contributing to the Government’s failure to both recruit doctors and retain those already working in Ireland.

At its recent conference entitled ‘Gender Equality in Medicine’, Dr Madeleine Ni Dhalaigh, a member of the IMO GP Committee, said that females were disproportionately affected in the health system on a range of issues, which was having a knock-on effect on the provision of care.