Hospitals must be responsible for staff mental health

AMA Queensland will urge the Queensland Government at today’s Health Workforce Mental Health and Wellbeing Summit to make hospital directors directly responsible for their workforces’ psychosocial wellbeing.

The Queensland Government agreed to hold today’s summit following AMA Queensland’s calls to bring together experts, government, academics, medical leaders and doctors to work on practical solutions to ease pressures on the medical workforce, particularly on doctors in training and medical students.

“The first article listed in the PubMed database on physician suicide was published in 1922,” AMA Queensland President Dr Maria Boulton said.

“Sadly, 100 years later the problem continues to be swept under the rug or be paid lip service by leaders in hospitals and in medical education.

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

“Hospital administrators in Queensland must take responsibility for their staff’s mental wellbeing in the same way that hospital directors in South Australia are required to under law. We are calling on the Queensland Government to mirror the South Australian laws as a first step in protecting vulnerable staff.”

AMA Queensland Committee of Doctors in Training (CDT) Chair Dr Rob Nayer said the statistics were startling.

“Today, female doctors die by 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.”

AMA Queensland’s annual Resident Hospital Health Check has surveyed doctors in training for the past seven years and found junior doctors are increasingly overworked and fatigued to the point they fear making a clinical error. This figure rose by 12 percentage points in 2022 to 60 per cent of respondents.

“Every year, more and more doctors in training raise fatigue and overwork as a key concern, and the pandemic has exacerbated the pressure,” Dr Nayer said.

“This year we have seen unprecedented stresses on our hospitals, doctors, and all healthcare workers. We know ambulance ramping and bed block remain big issues around the state, and it’s really showing a negative impact on the frontline healthcare providers, who are frequently our junior doctor workforce.

“Doctors, nurses and all healthcare staff are exhausted and now, more than ever, hospitals need to provide a safe, supportive environment for staff.

“AMA Queensland will be taking these results to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Summit. We need urgent and sustainable action to train and retain our doctors.”