Explosive secret SA Health Doctors Wellbeing Report lays bare a culture of stress for doctors

The explosive insider account has been labelled an extraordinary glimpse into SA’s “broken” hospital system.

Doctors are expected to work regardless of illness or fatigue, resulting in medical errors, and those who object are labelled “weak” a confidential government report shows.

The explosive official Doctors Wellbeing Report says healthcare workers have “markedly high rates of poor wellbeing” and warns of “deep-rooted cultural elements.”

“This includes a cultural expectation that doctors work regardless of illness or lack of sleep, with those acting against this often being marginalised as ‘uncommitted’ or ‘weak’.” it states.

“Historically, medical errors were typically blamed on an individual rather than considering systemic issues, often causing blame to fall on junior doctors.

“Many of these assumptions and practices continue today, with a culture around junior doctors training being considered a ‘rite of passage’ subject to significant work hours, consecutive days of work and limited rest breaks.”

The report notes the system has been under strain for years even prior to the pandemic due to demands from an ageing population and people with increasingly complex needs.

It stresses: “The goal is to address systemic issues within the clinical environment, not make individuals better tolerate a broken system.”

SASMOA chief industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland at a doctors’ rally highlighting workload issues. Picture: Tom Huntley

SA Salaried Medical Officers Association chief industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said: “The extraordinary thing is this is an SA Health report — not a union report or an academic report — which tells the devastating truth about doctors’ working conditions.

“The report contains an extraordinary amount of alarming evidence about the workload crisis faced by South Australia’s public hospital medical workforce, highlighting workforce shortages, excessive overtime and unused leave, contributing to repercussions such as ‘physical burnout, occupational distress and personal distress’ from a ‘broken system’.”

Ms Mulholland said many issues identified have a solution – workforce planning, which is a key SASMOA priority.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said: “Our health system is battling extraordinary pressure due to record ramping and overcrowded EDs under Labor and this report highlights how challenging and exhausting that is for our hardworking doctors.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Health Minister Chris Picton. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“The Labor government can’t just run our workforce into the ground and expect them to work longer and longer hours — they need support, and that must include recruiting and retaining more staff.”

Health Minister Chris Picton said: “The reason we proactively did this work is so we could uncover these long-standing issues and address them to improve the wellbeing of our doctors. It’s why in our first two years in government we recruited an extra 329 full time doctors above attrition and why this year we recruited the state’s largest ever intake of graduate doctors.”

SA Health deputy chief executive Judith Formston said: “Some of the (report’s) recommendations are already being progressed locally, including a cross-system review of medical rostering practices and piloting a new medical rostering system.”