Young doctors are exhausted and fear making serious mistakes

The stark reality of understaffing in Queensland hospitals is laid bare in a new report in which junior doctors rate their workplaces.

Clockwise from top left, Royal Brisbane and Women’s, Mackay, QEII Jubilee and Ipswich hospitals

The stark reality of understaffing in Queensland hospitals is laid bare in a new report that shows more than half of junior doctors are exhausted from working overtime and many are fearful of making a fatal error.

The annual Resident Hospital Health Check released on Wednesday also shows an alarming 30 per cent of young medics felt their safety has been compromised at work due to verbal or physical intimidation or threats from patients or other staff.

Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation Queensland and the Australian Medical Association Queensland’s Committee of Doctors in Training surveyed 723 interns, house officers and other junior doctors to compare employment conditions in public hospitals around the state.

The medics graded access to annual leave, career progression, overtime, culture, bullying and sexual harassment.

Rockhampton Hospital received the lowest score at C-.

Hervey Bay, Ipswich, Bundaberg, Caboolture, Mackay, Mater Brisbane and Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospitals scraped a C grade.

And the highest score of B+ was given to Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee and Redcliffe.

The lowest score of C- for bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment went to Hervey Bay, while a C was given to Bundaberg, Caboolture, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast University, The Prince Charles and Townsville.

“Incidents of bullying and harassment remain unacceptably high and require a sustained and systematic response to ensure a work environment that promotes staff and patient safety,” Doctors in Training chair Elise Witter said.

Over half of respondents had fatigue concerns, with 18 doctors working more than 24 hours of overtime in a fortnight and 72 doctors working between 14 and 24 hours of overtime on average each fortnight.

Only one in 10 doctors worked a standard fortnight with no overtime.

“Chronic understaffing means junior doctors are working significant amounts of overtime, with fatigue and overwork affecting our ability to make good judgments and perform to the best of our ability,” Dr Witter said.

She said while it was heartening to see an increase in the number of doctors being properly paid for their overtime (89 per cent, compared to 85 per cent in 2022), 43 per cent of doctors claimed only part of their overtime, with an additional 9 per cent claiming no overtime, despite working the extra hours.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Maria Boulton said early career doctors were among the most vulnerable

financially and emotionally.

“Our most junior doctors are in their first few years of dealing with life-or-death situations, which takes a huge emotional toll,” Dr Boulton said.