Junior doctors quitting
More and more overworked junior doctors are leaving medicine for jobs that are less stressful, with one union estimating that in a worst-case scenario, up to 20% of junior doctors could quit in the new year.
Deborah Powell, national secretary of the New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association (NZRDA), said that when she left her job as a junior doctor in 1989 it was virtually unheard of for doctors to throw away the years of medical training.
But now overwork is pushing doctors out of medicine entirely, according to the union’s delegates and executive members.
Powell knew of a doctor who moved into work in IT, others to management roles, and one who retrained as a quantity surveyor. Others stayed in the profession but moved to higher-paying jobs in Australia.
Worst-case estimates from members were that 15% to 20% currently-working junior doctors were going to leave the job by early next year and it was not known if the shortfall could be made up by new doctors and overseas arrivals, Powell said. This was based on information from delegates and executive members at every worksite, she said.
Those leaving had done six years of medical school, then two to four years as a house officer, plus up to 10 as a registrar, she said.
There were times under the old district health board system that staffing dropped below minimum levels and there were reports of a single junior doctor having to care for about 100 post-surgical patients.
‘‘In my cohort of people . . . a large proportion are taking time off next year and that’s to travel, live overseas or locum overseas,’’ said Wellington-based house officer and NZRDA representative Dr Kerry Appleton. ‘‘We are all sort of preparing ourselves for the potential of a mass exodus.’’
Working an average of 55-65 hours a week, resident medical officers were not ‘‘work-shy’’, but were increasingly being asked to pick up extra shifts on top of already heavy workloads, Appleton said.
She said a culture shift was needed to prevent a ‘‘mass exodus’’ to countries like Australia where they were paid significantly more.
A spokesperson for Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand said it is ‘‘not currently experiencing an abnormally high number’’ of junior doctor resignations.
But the resignations are not confined to junior ranks. Just this week, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) Toi Mata Hauora executive director Sarah Dalton heard from a doctor who was quitting public practice because he ‘‘never saw his kids and couldn’t book leave’’.
Overwork and burnout was a ‘‘massive’’ problem that seemed to be worsening.
Last year the ASMS surveyed its members – senior doctors and dentists – and found out nearly 50% experienced burnout.
‘‘While doctors are more likely to suffer from burnout than other professional groups . . . suffering from burnout has critical consequences and should not be taken as an inevitable consequence of choosing to work in the medical profession,’’ the survey’s said.
The ASMS said that 18% of its members surveyed planned to leave in the coming five years, 11% planned to move overseas, and 42% either planned to move to private practice or increase the amount of private work they did. The union has 5500 members.
It comes as the World Medical Association warns of increasing cases of bullying, harassment, and overwork in junior doctors globally with some leaving the profession.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s health system is described by some as being in crisis with reported shortages in July of about 4000 or more nurses.
The senior doctors’ union warned it had a 22% shortage.