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'Very rare' for junior doctors to run ED night shifts unsupervised - NZRDA

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 5 Dec 2018, 9:15AM
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'Very rare' for junior doctors to run ED night shifts unsupervised - NZRDA

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 5 Dec 2018, 9:15AM

There are claims junior doctors are being left to run emergency departments unsupervised during the night shifts because senior clinicians are refusing to come into work to assist while on-call.

The juniors doctors are being urged to "dob" in their bosses but many are hesitant to do so because they are worried it will have an impact on their career.

A junior doctor who worked at Wairarapa Hospital said he often worried about someone dying under his watch because he didn't have the necessary experience.

However, NZRDA national secretary Deborah Powell told Mike Hosking it is a "very, very rare" occurrence. 

"Most of our SMOs and consultants are very available to us. The problem, of course, is that when it does happen it can have serious consequences so we need to know about it and we need to have a conversation with any doctor who behaves like that."

"Small hospitals are run by health surgeons, these are people anywhere up to four years out of medical school."

She said junior doctors are fearful of career retribution if they speak out about their bosses' behaviour.

"Resident doctors get signed off by senior doctors every three months to say they are competent [and] if they want to proceed in their career, say into surgery, it's the senior doctors that decide whether that's going to happen." 

"Within the culture, there is a real fear to do what your boss wants and don't dob your boss in because that hurts your career, that might be on the line. It's a really bad culture and it's something we are currently trying to address but it's still a real fear for resident doctors."

 Powell said the problem was junior doctors had less experience -

"If you don't know, how do you know to call for help."

She said there was immense pressure on junior doctors to see, treat and discharge. Patients could be sent home when an inexperienced doctor did not realise something more serious was happening. These issues were particularly bad in smaller hospitals.

"When we hear about it we take it up as an urgent matter with DHBs and they usually respond quickly, but it requires the RMO to dob in their supervisor who may be responsible for signing them off as competent at the end of the run," Powell said.

"Without someone immediately available to review the patient these mistakes can happen and this is a concern, not just to NZRDA but every junior doctor working in ED, none of whom want to make such a mistake."

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