I’m With Yumna
This past weekend, Yumna Moosa uploaded her video to YouTube, detailing what happened to her after she reported a supervisor to the hospital board for sexism, racism, and harassment. It’s an incredibly shocking 8 minutes, as she plays recordings of her conversations with various parties involved.
There seem to be two broad types of reactions to the video. The first is the expected shock, followed by the agreement that her experience is not entirely unfamiliar, followed by the comment that her video is incredibly brave.
The second group of commentators are the detractors: those who say she has no credibility because she didn’t state her case, because she made her recordings secretly, that she’s oversensitive, and that she probably is a lousy clinician. They say that their experience doesn’t echo hers. They discount her because she doesn’t have recordings of the actual incidents, so they can’t be proven.
Moosa detailed quite cleverly and eloquently what happened. She highlights three specific statements made a by a specific person that she took issue with, lists the processes she went through to report them, and ends with the final bit of advice she got: destroy your logbook, and with it all record of your complaint.
I think she has stated her case pretty well. It’s all there, if you watch the video properly. For those who want more detail, she says at the end of the video that full recordings are available. If you need more information, ask her for it.
To those who say her allegations cannot be true because they don’t match your experience, I have to say: you’ve either worked in very gentle places, or you’ve had your ears and eyes slammed shut, or you are the bully. Yes, gentle places exist (I’m lucky enough to work in one now). And yes, most doctors are the good kind, the gentle, fair kind. But if you’ve spent more than a few years in this profession, in a few different departments and institutions, I very much doubt that you’ve never heard any colleague or senior pass a sexist or racial slur. I doubt very much that you haven’t heard of people who were sexually harassed, or had inappropriate advances made towards them. I find it impossible to believe that you have never seen a fellow student or colleague humiliated or brought to tears. If you say that you have personally never witnessed that kind of behaviour, then tell me where you’ve been. I want to tell potential students and junior doctors to go there. Or, open your eyes and look around, even if it’s in the mirror.
The veracity of Moosa’s accusations aside, I cannot imagine any situation in which it is appropriate to speak to anyone else, let alone a colleague, in the way Moosa was spoken to in the latter recordings.
Most of us never report the things we hear or see, and the reasons for this are detailed with chilling clarity by the ‘mediator’ brought in to make Moosa see some sense. The ‘Fit In Or Fuck Off’ mentality (and yes, I have heard this term used multiple times) is largely accepted. Deal with it or go cry at home, or even better, find another job. How do we report someone for bad behaviour when the system has long ago decided that members of [x specialty] are just ‘like that’ and ‘not known for their interpersonal skills’ but as long as they can perform their clinical duties, everyone should just suck it up? We fear for our careers. How can we report an immediate superior to a head of department, when the head of department socialises with the superior in question on the weekend, and will be responsible for giving us a registrar or consultant post in a few years time? To whom do we report sexist jokes, if the people we need to report to laugh at the same jokes? And then perhaps, most shamefully, maybe we are reluctant to report because our own slates are not pristine. Who of us has never made slightly off-sides comments of our own, maybe back when we were young and cocky and stupid, or maybe in a moment of extreme frustration? Who of us hasn’t heard something inappropriate being said, and bowed our heads and kept quiet, making ourselves complicit in the process?
At best, some of us may scold our friends when they’re being offensive. Maybe we’ll complain to our parents or spouses. Very few doctors take the formal complaint route, and this video shows us why.
Moosa herself explains why she had the courage to do what she did: she stepped out of the profession. Her career can theoretically no longer be affected by her complaints. Most of us don’t have that option, but that doesn’t mean Moosa deserves to be derided for her actions. She is brave, and she deserves support. It’s a travesty that we depend on the few who have given up their medical dreams entirely to speak for the rest of us. Something has to change. Senior doctors need to interrogate their own behaviour, and call out problematic colleagues. Junior doctors with complaints need to be taken seriously, dealt with professionally, and not victimised.
Being a doctor is still one of the most esteemed professions in the world, and as a group we need to be worthy of the respect the public bestows on us.
I’m with Yumna.
