Recruitment to UK cardiothoracic surgery in the era of public outcome reporting

Westaby and coworkers analyzed the demographic changes of cardiothoracic surgeons in the UK between 1999 and 2014. There was an increase in appointments from overseas and from other European countries which complemented a decrease of UK graduates entering the specialty. Only 5% are females. The authors attribute this to several public discussions in the last years that shed a negative light on cardiothoracic surgery and call to action to restore attractiveness of the specialty.