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PAGE 12 and he hadn’ t gone to the toilet.”
On the afternoon David died, he had been sent an email from the hospital saying they had spoken to his doctor and there would be no more inappropriate rosters.
“ And I wrote back to them, saying who it was, and I said,‘ There won’ t be any more inappropriate rosters, or any other sort of roster, because within an hour of you calling, he’ s dead.’” There was another email
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that afternoon, an exam result from December, saying David had passed.
“ I had to support my two remaining sons,” his father says.“ I had to, by then, go into coping mode, being strong because that’ s my role— to look after them.
“ But it is so hard. The police are at your door and they tell you,‘ Your son’ s dead.’”
Australian Doctor also approached the Hunter New England Local Health District.
It did not respond specifically to the account given by David’ s father, citing privacy concerns.
But an executive director of the health district, Dr Paul
Craven, said the hospital had improved rostering, increased staffing, and boosted support, supervision and training
for junior doctors since David’ s death.
More platitudes?
David’ s father says he has talked
‘ The culture change needs to happen from the top.’
to hospital managers, supplied evidence to a root cause analysis and has written to politicians of every creed, but he says he
DON ' T MISS THE SIGNS |
has received more platitudes than commitments for action. While he acknowledges there have been some changes in the wake of his son’ s death, not enough has been done to create a meaningful difference for doctors of the future.
“ Look, I think they’ re applying bandaids,” he says of the response by the hospital.
“ But now, others have taken their own lives, and I know of yet others who have taken sick leave.
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“ With my son, all they needed was to let him take his annual leave that he was entitled to. When he died, he was owed more than two years’ worth [ of ] annual leave after working less than four years.“ He needed a break and they wouldn’ t give him leave, and he wasn’ t alone.”
He says despite the shift in attitudes over the last decade around doctors with impairments, only a few junior doctors own up to having a mental health issue.
“ And to me, that still puts a black mark on their career straightaway.
“ If you’ ve got a broken leg, they can see it and understand it, and they know it can be fixed.
“ But when it’ s a problem in your brain, they don’ t understand it.”
So he says more needs to be done— to tackle bullying of and by staff, to improve the work culture, to protect junior doctors from brutal rosters, and to respect leave entitlements.
“ The culture change needs to happen from the top, and that means disruptive change. And it means it has to start with the politicians, and it has to start with the health ministers.”
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