Senior Doctor Burn-Out Survey No Surprise

Senior Doctor Burn-Out Survey No Surprise; Part of a National Pattern

“The survey revealing high levels of senior doctor burn-out at Christchurch Hospital is no surprise and part of a national pattern,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.

Mr Powell was responding to the survey of senior doctors at Christchurch Hospital conducted by the School of Medicine’s Department of Psychological Medicine. The survey revealed that 30% of senior doctors reported a high level of emotional exhaustion, 32% a low sense of personal accomplishment, and 25% a high level of depersonalisation.

“This survey is consistent with our understanding and experiences in the rest of the country. Most likely a national survey would produce an outcome more or less similar to the Christchurch Hospital survey. The work of senior doctors by its very nature is stressful – making daily critical decisions that affect the suffering, pain and safety of patients as well as whether patients might live or die.”

“But there are other preventable factors that add greatly to the stress and burn-out of senior doctors. These include:

• being forced to work excessively long and onerous hours and lacking sufficient time for proper professional development and education. This disguises the serious under-staffing in public hospitals;
• being effectively excluded from genuine involvement in decision-making in areas where they have expertise and experience; and
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• the heart-breaking frustration of knowing that many patients are being denied essential treatments because of the under-resourcing and under-funding of public hospitals.”

“This survey should serve as a warning for government and district health boards of the dangerous risks of the burn-out of senior doctors. There are practical and effective things they could do to prevent this.”

“To date, unfortunately, too many with the power and influence to improve the situation have turned a blind eye to these risks,” concluded Mr Powell.

ENDS

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