Doctors are known to experience bullying and harassment from senior colleagues – but a South Australian doctors’ union says nurses are contributing too.
South Australian public health district Gawler Health Service is facing serious allegations about its workplace culture, which staff say could jeopardise patient care.
An entry permit holder report filled out by South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA) employment and industrial relations lawyer Elizabeth Dooley outlined several suspected contraventions of work health and safety legislation.
Doctors in the general medicine service were allegedly subject to “ongoing bullying, harassment and disrespectful behaviours” from various nursing staff members.
In a recent incident, a nurse reportedly demanded a doctor remain seated in an office while waiting to speak with another nurse who had taken a phone call.
When the doctor refused, the nurse allegedly stood 50cm away and stared at the doctor for five minutes, blocking their path to the nurse on the call.
According to the report, the doctor described the behaviour as “bizarre” and making them feel “intimidated and highly uncomfortable”.
Doctors reported that their instructions to nurses about patient care were being ignored, requiring them to constantly follow up with nursing staff to ensure the instructions were implemented.
If not, patients were reassessed, potentially requiring doctors to formulate alternative treatments, which allegedly left doctors feeling “exhausted and frustrated and worried”.
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During a patient admission, workers reported that a nurse snatched a mobile computer station from a doctor in front of the patient and family, interrupting the admission and causing distress.
According to the entry permit holder report, incidents had been reported through formal channels, but the doctors had growing concern about a “lack of action by management” and “lack of faith” in the incident reporting process.
In another instance, a manager reportedly discussed the potential demotion of a senior doctor with that doctor’s colleagues without the doctor’s knowledge.
Another “terrible” incident described a manager overriding the clinical judgement of three specialist doctors by blocking a clinical care plan for a patient.
Doctors were reportedly “anxious, distressed, and very concerned” about their professional reliability and about “jeopardised” patient care.
Workers reported just one or two junior doctors caring for between 40 and 50 patients at a time, almost double the patient load previously expected of them – despite presentations being expected to increase over winter.
The report said workers often did overtime, feared burnout or missed patient care, were unable to be replaced when colleagues were on sick leave, and felt reluctant to take annual leave due to inadequate staffing.
At the time of Ms Dooley’s union workplace visit on 18 June, none of the transgressions had been rectified, according to her report.
However, according to reporting by the ABC, the SafeWork SA representatives visited on 2 July, two weeks after SASMOA’s inspection, and reported no safety breaches.
The ABC reported that the local health network was working with an external reviewer to bring together the doctors’ and nurses’ unions to make recommendations for potential improvements to Gawler Health Service.
Similarly, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation South Australia (ANMF SA) branch told TMR it had not received any recent reports from members about systemic bullying by nursing staff at the site.
ANMF SA said any allegations should be properly investigated, with natural justice afforded to all parties, including the staff subject to these concerns, and a genuine opportunity to respond.
“Based on the information currently available to ANMF, some of the issues raised appear to extend beyond allegations of bullying and include broader matters such as staffing, workload, communication, leadership and clinical governance,” the association said.
Both the Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network and the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association were contacted by TMR for comment, but neither responded before deadline.
