Business
27 November, 2024
C-plus grade for hospital
CAIRNS Hospital has slipped down the rankings in the latest AMA Queensland ‘ASMOFQ Resident Hospital Health Check’.
The overall grade of C+ was down on the B- Cairns Hospital scored in the 2023 survey of junior doctors from across the state.
Statewide, 29 per cent of respondents felt their safety had been compromised at work and 46 per cent were concerned about making a clinical error due to fatigue caused by overwork.
At Cairns, the proportion of junior doctors reporting the fear of making a fatigue-based error was lower at 36 per cent, but two in five (40 per cent) reported safety concerns.
“This is the fourth consecutive year that about 30 per cent of doctors in training (DITs) have reported safety concerns at work and the seventh that about 50 per cent have reported fears of making a fatigue-based error,” AMA Queensland committee of doctors in training (CDT) chairwoman Dr Elise Witter said.
“It is beyond disappointing that we are not seeing any change in these statistics. 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 burn-out.”
Thirty-two Cairns Hospital doctors responded to the survey who ranked ranked access to annual leave and career progression and development as a C, A- for hours of work and overtime, C+ for wellbeing and workplace culture and B- for bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment.
Dr Witter said “we clearly need better workforce retention strategies and incentives to keep these doctors in the profession they have studied and worked so hard for.” The survey of 831 doctors in training at hospitals across the state 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.
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service (CHHHS) chief executive officer Leena Singh said the “health, safety and wellbeing of our staff is a priority of CHHHS”.
“We are committed to listening and acting on staff feedback, including junior doctors, and doing as much as we can to support them,” she said.
“That includes empowering them to raise concerns without fear of reprisal.
“This engagement and surveys like the AMA Queensland-ASMOFQ Resident Hospital Health Check help us to identify and address workplace issues.”
