“We are there to treat our patients,” he said.
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“When you work that hard and don’t have enough staff, your patients are at risk. We want it to be safe for them and for us.”
Gordon Legal and Hayden Stephens and Associates, the law firms representing Bolton, said the court ruling was a clear turning point for junior doctors in their campaign to end hazardous working hours.
Peninsula Health’s chief medical officer, associate professor Shyaman Menon, said the service recognized the decision and was reviewing it carefully.
“Our junior doctors are an important part of our organization’s future and we recognize the important contribution they make in all of our hospitals and healthcare settings,” he said.
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It is estimated that junior doctors routinely work about 16 hours of overtime a week, much of it unpaid.
Studies have found this demand has left trainee physicians exhausted and stressed and increased the likelihood of clinical errors due to work overload, leading to concerns that burnout affecting junior medical personnel is placing patients at risk.
One survey, conducted by the NSW branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), found clinical errors including medication errors and forgetting to convey important information during shift handover, forgetting to check test results, missing steps when examining patients and ignoring critical questions when taking patient history. .
The Masthead also previously reported on the further class action taken by dozens of Melbourne trainee doctors against Sunshine Hospital, amid claims they were overworked, underpaid, and denied mandatory clinical training.
One doctor at the time described instances where registrants were on duty for 10 days straight or were not given 10 hours of rest between shifts, and said it was not uncommon to see junior doctors crying in the living quarters “because they felt so overwhelmed. , are overworked and that they are not doing their jobs well enough.”
Dr Jill Tomlinson, Victorian president of the Australian Medical Association, said doctors should be paid for the hours they work.Credit: Penny Stephens
Gordon’s Legal Partner Andrew Grech said it was time for the Victorian government to act, and called on Peninsula Health and the state Department of Health secretary, professor Euan Wallace, to commit to ending salary theft among trainee doctors.
“It’s time for the Andrews government to step in,” Grech said.
His call was echoed by AMA Victoria president Jill Tomlinson, who urged the government to focus on improving the health system and a staffing crisis in hospitals, rather than fighting junior doctors in court.
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“Structural change will only occur if hospitals are forced to admit and reduce overtime,” said Tomlinson.
“All we ask is that junior doctors employed in the Victorian health system are paid for their hours worked according to their fair share of rights, as agreed by their own employers.”
Roderick McRae, president of the Victoria branch of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation, called on the government to stop paying millions of dollars in legal fees and end “this senseless drain on hospital resources”.
“Our healthcare system is already under pressure. Work with us, not against us, to try to solve this crisis,” he said.
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A spokesman for the Victorian government said it takes the welfare of its healthcare workers seriously.
“We have made it clear that wage theft is not tolerated in Victoria,” he said.
“The Peninsular Health and Wellness Department is carefully considering the decision handed down Friday afternoon, and we are not in a position to provide further comment at this time.”
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