Calls for Qld Govt to hold Doctors’ Mental Heath Summit as suicide rates revealed

Medical experts desperate to curb shocking suicide rates among doctors are calling on the Queensland Government to hold a Mental Health Summit, declaring that taking no action would be ‘inexcusable’.

The Australian Medical Association of Queensland is calling on the State Government to convene a Doctors’ Mental Health Summit to ease pressure on doctors as startling suicide rates are revealed.

The peak body wants to see academics, government officials and doctors in sit down meetings to come up with long-needed practical solutions to ease the mental health impact on the state’s medics.

The AMAQ is also concerned that the Queensland Government is currently proposing to change the law so that doctors who are subject to an allegation can be publicly named before any investigation is completed and any findings are made.

Medical experts are calling on the Queensland Government to hold a Doctors’ Mental Health Summit to battle suicide rates within the profession.

“This is inherently unfair and should not proceed. Doctors are subject to the strictest regulation and are trained to the highest level in not just medicine but ethical behaviour.

Being exonerated after being publicly named is small comfort for a doctor whose reputation and career have already been destroyed,” AMAQ’s new president Dr Maria Boulton said.

The AMAQ’s top doc says a probe into doctor suicide is long overdue.

“The first article listed in the PubMed database on physician suicide was published in 1922. Sadly, 100 years later, the problem continues to be swept under the rug or given lip service by leaders in hospitals and in medical education,” Dr Boulton said.

“Doctors are reluctant to seek help for their mental health for fear of professional repercussions and social stigma. Proposed changes to the National Law that would allow regulators to publicly name doctors under investigation will only make this worse.”

AMAQ President Maria Boulton. Picture: Supplied

AMAQ Committee of Doctors in Training (CDT) chair Dr Rob Nayer said the statistics are startling.

“Today, female doctors commit suicide at 227 per cent the rate of the general population and male doctors at 141 per cent,” Dr Nayer said.

“Doctors in training are especially vulnerable. One in five reports suicidal ideation and one in two experience moderate to high distress.

“We don’t want to see another doctor take their life. It’s time for the Queensland Government to take action. We’re calling for a Doctors’ Mental Health Summit, like we have seen in other states, to chart a way forward. Recently the South Australian Government amended its laws to make workforce psychosocial wellbeing a clear responsibility of hospital directors. This is an excellent example of meaningful change to address a critical driving factor in physician suicide.

“Change was needed years ago. Refusing to work towards that change now is inexcusable,” Dr Nayer said.