Tired doctors scared of messing up work
TIRED young doctors fear making mistakes at work as they report working excessively long hours.
The latest AMA Queensland public hospital report card found 46 per cent of doctors surveyed at Townsville Hospital were concerned about making an error due to fatigue while 8 per cent said they had not been fully paid for overtime.
As well as this, the report found 12 per cent of Townsville junior doctors said they were advised not to claim unrostered overtime by an administrative or senior medical officers, while almost a third said they felt claiming it would negatively impact their assessment.
The annual survey compares conditions at public hospitals across the state and includes 730 responses.
Townsville Hospital and
Health Service acting executive director of medical services Dr Niall Small said the service was committed to attracting and retaining the best possible team.
He said the region’s 400 doctors-in-training represented the largest slice of the 730 people employed at the hospital.
“It is critical to us that their experience in our health service is a positive one,” he said.
The AMA has called on the next state government to commit $1.67m to fund a Wellness at Work program to ensure all junior doctors receive the resilience training and support they need in their first five years of training.
More than $500,000 has been committed to a statewide Wellbeing at Work program which supports interns across Queensland in the past two years.