HORNSBY Ku-ring-gai Hospital has topped the Australian Medical Association’s (AMA) 2021 Hospital Health Check Survey, receiving an overall A-grade.
The annual survey focuses on staff wellbeing, bullying, access to leave, rostering and overtime. Hornsby Ku-ring-gai received an A-grade for rostering, overtime and leave, and a B-grade for behaviours, sick leave and facilities. It was the only hospital in the survey to receive an overall A-grade score.
The survey was undertaken from 23 July to 3 September, during the peak of the COVID-19 Delta outbreak. There were 1,747 doctors-in-training from 35 hospitals across NSW who completed the survey, with the junior doctors asked to answer questions based on a hospital in which they had worked in the last 12 months.
Half of all respondents reported experiencing bullying at work, mostly by senior medical officers. This is a significant jump from 2020, whereby only 32% of respondents reported experiencing this.
The survey revealed an increase in overtime for doctors-in-training, with 60% of respondents reporting that they worked more than five hours of unrostered overtime in an average fortnight, compared to 49% in 2020.
Doctors-in-training felt they had made clinical errors as a result of being overworked. In total, 38% of participants reported that they had made a fatigue-induced error, whilst 47% of all respondents were concerned for their personal safety due to fatigue associated with long hours.
In terms of their overall wellbeing and morale, 63% of respondents feel valued by their hospital. Three-quarters of respondents said that they would recommend their hospital to another doctor-in-training.
In a recent win for NSW doctors-in-training, there has been a change in paid parental leave. From 1 July 2021, doctors-in-training are eligible to take 14 weeks of paid parental leave in the first 12 months of their child’s life. The new policy allows both parents to take two weeks concurrently at the time of birth, adoption or surrogacy and up to 12 weeks separately to assume primary care duties.