‘Culture of cover-up and cowardice’ in Queensland hospitals: AMA

Senior Queensland bureaucrats attempted to “cover up” significant concerns about safety and bullying in hospitals, according to the peak body representing doctors.

A new survey of 831 junior doctors in training conducted by the Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ) shows increasingly negative trends across multiple metrics.

But, ahead of talks and funding negotiations, Health Minister Tim Nicholls has promised the LNP government will do better than Labor.

Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital in Brisbane.Credit: Michelle Smith

According to the survey, about one-in-three said they sometimes felt unsafe at work, almost half reported being burnt out to the extent they could make errors on the job, and more than four-in-five say they feared negative repercussions if they reported an incident.

About a third reported bullying, discrimination or harassment. Almost one-in-five said they had been told not to claim overtime pay.

AMA Queensland president Nick Yim accused hospital managers of trying to stop the survey.

“It is extremely disappointing that bureaucrats at some of our biggest hospitals actively discouraged their doctors from taking part, presumably because they feared what our survey would find,” Dr Yim said.

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

Yim told Brisbane Times the AMAQ has scheduled a meeting with Nicholls where the survey results will be raised.

“The first thing is obviously identifying the needs [of doctors], and then the second thing is identifying strategies to deal with them,” he said.

“There are just some simple things. Some of the junior doctors said they didn’t feel safe walking from the hospital between buildings and also to their cars, for example.

“So what are the security environments? What are things that are in place that can assist them?”

In a statement, Nicholls said increased resourcing and improved consultation with doctors would help address the challenges.

“The AMAQ report card reflects what every Queenslander knows was wrong with our health system under the former Labor government,” he said.

“This is exactly why Queenslanders voted for a fresh start which includes restoring health services when you need them right across this state.

“The Crisafulli government will properly resource our hospitals and put doctors and nurses back in charge to help end Labor’s health crisis.”

Yim said, in Brisbane hospitals particularly, doctors were being worked beyond the point of exhaustion.

“It is concerning that 50 per cent of doctors are at stages of burnout,” Yim said.

“We know that some doctors when they feel fatigued it increases the chance of errors, and the junior doctors were concerned about that.”

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