Qld hospital violence at crisis point with doctors living in fear

A statewide survey of doctors working in Queensland hospitals has revealed the worst facilities for bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment. FULL LIST OF GRADES

Queensland's worst hospitals for bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment have been ranked.

Rising crime is impacting the state’s young doctors, with a third frightened to walk between hospital buildings while on night shift.

The annual Australian Medical Association Queensland/Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation Queensland Resident Hospital Health Check highlights how grave problems like burnout or lack of safety facing junior doctors have not eased in many years, adding fears more medics will walk away from the profession.

The AMAQ claims that bureaucrats from some of the state’s biggest hospitals actively discouraged their doctors from taking part in the survey and the association plans to meet with the new LNP government to demand improved working conditions and the end to “cover-up and cowardice”.

The health check shows half of junior doctors live in fear of making a deadly error due to being overworked and a third don’t feel safe in their workplace.

“This is the fourth consecutive year that about 30 per cent of doctors in training have reported safety concerns at work and the seventh that about 50 per cent have reported fears of making a fatigue-based error,” AMAQ committee of doctors in training chair Elise Witter said.

“It is beyond disappointing that we are not seeing any change in these statistics,” Dr Witter said.

Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital emergency department

“Everyone deserves to feel safe at work.

“What we are hearing from our junior doctors, particularly those on ward call overnight, is that they do not feel safe walking between hospital buildings.

“Disturbingly, 50 per cent of junior doctors are already feeling some form of burnout.

“We clearly need better workforce retention strategies and incentives to keep these doctors in the profession they have studied and worked so hard for.”

A security guard outside Gold Coast University Hospital

The survey included 831 doctors in training at hospitals across the state, but AMAQ president Nick Yim said bureaucrats at some of our biggest hospitals actively discouraged their doctors from taking part in the survey.

“This points to a culture of cover-up and cowardice – the exact behaviours that we are attempting to identify and fix through this survey,” Dr Yim said.

While doctors from 40 hospitals completed the survey, only 17 hospitals had enough participants to be statistically valid and included in the report card.

The report found a decrease in respondents reporting experiencing or witnessing bullying, discrimination or harassment – down to 35 per cent in 2024 from 48 per cent two years earlier.

However, 81 per cent of respondents said they were concerned about negative consequences personally for reporting an incident, up from 75 per cent in 2023.

“We cannot afford to have a new generation of doctors coming up who are afraid to report bad behaviour,” Dr Yim said.

AMAQ president Dr Nick Yim

“AMA Queensland and ASMOFQ will take these survey results to the new government and demand change. We met with every Hospital and Health Service following last year’s RHHC to outline the results and offer practical actions to address issues.

“These meetings were positive and led to good outcomes.

“We will do the same with these results,” Dr Yim said.

There was a drop in respondents reporting being fully paid for claimed overtime and 19 per cent reported they had been advised not to claim overtime.

ASMOFQ president Hau Tan said the organisation fought hard for the working conditions and rights of all hospital doctors, and it was critical overtime and fatigue were managed for junior doctors.

“They have just started their careers and are vulnerable to bullying, discrimination and harassment,” he said.

With a new Queensland government coming to power and the next medical officer certified agreement negotiation period about to commence, now is the time for the Health Minister to commit to improving the working conditions of junior doctors,” Dr Hau said.

“ASMOFQ will continue to support and advocate for doctors to ensure their workplaces are safe and their working conditions are protected.”