In March 2021, the Kennedy Review made 16 recommendations designed to deliver ambitious changes and make a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion within our College and the wider surgical profession.
One of these recommendations was to establish a College SAS strategy and deliver an action plan to recognise the vital role played by SAS surgeons. This was because the evidence provided to the Kennedy review panel demonstrated continued obvious and casual discrimination, bullying, belittling, and humiliation of both SAS and locally employed (LE) surgeons, many of whom are international medical graduates. Individuals in these roles reported feeling excluded from opportunities to develop, having no voice, influence, or control over their work schedules, fearing blame and perceiving injustice and a lack of support from colleagues, leading to a lack of any sense of belonging.
And yet SAS doctors are an important and much relied upon group of doctors and dentists. To help us develop our new SAS strategy, we have reached out to SAS surgeons and dentists, national leaders, employers, and medical workforce leaders to find ways to collaborate to better support and develop this workforce. The following quotes highlight the views of some of the national leaders we spoke with.
We want SAS surgeons to feel a sense of belonging: to the College and their profession. Our SAS strategy aims to:
Improve access:
By supporting individuals to achieve their professional goals, whether clinical, educational, or managerial.
Engender belonging:
By respecting and welcoming SAS colleagues into the College and working to address issues of inequality and exclusion.
Give voice:
By ensuring that the voice of SAS surgeons is heard alongside that of other colleagues and supporting the development of national networks to represent SAS surgeons, that ensures parity of esteem with other groups within the surgical workforce.
Our SAS strategy is not just a document but also a series of ongoing events and actions
Read or download our Strategy Document here
“We need to speak from the patient angle for SAS. Patients are not receiving the service they should be… the number one solution is workforce.”
Dr Waleed Arshad, Associate Specialist and immediate past Chair, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) SAS Committee
“I’d like SAS to sit alongside traditional medical training and for doctors to move seamlessly from one to the other. So people have choice and aren’t disadvantaged from a training ambition point of view by going into a SAS role.”
Professor Pushpinder Mangat, Medical Director, Health Education and Improvement Wales
“The current medical workforce crisis requires everyone to work to their full potential, so we need more engaged and empowered SAS doctors.”
Dr Ujjwala Mohite, Chair, BMA SAS Committee
“There is no way the NHS should not be developing all its staff all of the time. That is how you get good staff, good retention, good morale, better outcomes.”
Professor Wendy Reid, Executive Medical Director of Health Education England
“There needs to be parity of esteem and there are two things that we need to look at: better representation of SAS doctors into leadership and management roles, and contract changes as specified by NHS Employers.”
Professor Partha Kar, Medical Director, Medical Workforce Race Equality Standards (MWRES)
“Positive workplace culture makes a difference to the workplace experience and the quality of care provided to patients … and we know that this is an area, probably more than any other, where we could all – senior clinicians as well as senior executives – do a lot better.”
Daniel Mortimer, Chief Executive, NHS Employers
“It is important that everyone is given the opportunities to develop to their full potential – so that they provide best patient care.”
Professor Dame Carrie MacEwen, Chair, General Medical Council
Find out what other organisations have said about developing the SAS workforce:
