Could Canberra get a private emergency department? Credit:Nicolas Walker

The findings were so damning that the new college president David Watters issued an unprecedented video apology even before the advisory group's final report was released. He acknowledged that "some of our members have been perpetrators, often from their positions of power and authority"; that the personal and professional impact on the individuals affected had been "devastating"; and that "many of you have not felt you can trust the college to complain". Professor Watters apologised that "too many of us have been silent bystanders" and said the college would have to earn back trust by tackling the problems fairly and effectively.

Is there something special about surgeons, that has let some of them get away for so long with behaviour which is not just out of step with contemporary community standards but has been prohibited by law in the workplace for more than 30 years? Yes and no.

In an issues paper the expert advisory group noted that surgery was a "hierarchical and conservative profession that largely maintains the status quo". It's a boys' club: 52 per cent of medical students are female and so are more than 28 per cent of those who start surgical training. But women drop out at twice the rate of men and the proportion of qualified surgeons who are female is only 11 per cent. There is an inherent power imbalance between trainee and supervisor in surgery's apprentice-style training model. Toughness is celebrated and the need to make life or death decisions efficiently often favours autocracy over collegiality.

But in other respects there's nothing special about surgeons: the issues of bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment being confronted by the College of Surgeons are widespread in the health sector generally. After the College of Surgeons made its mea culpa, the Australian Medical Association and many other medical industry groupings piled in. The issues go "beyond the boundaries of surgical training and are something the whole profession needs to confront and resolve", AMA president Brian Owler​ said. He said all stakeholders – employers (hospitals), medical schools, unions, colleges and professional bodies – needed to collaborate closely to drive the cultural changes needed "to stamp these problems out".