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s hospital bosses
because I needed references from those departments to get my job .
To be honest , I toed the unofficial line of what the departments wanted because you accept that is part of the job .
You are in a vulnerable position of potentially being failed on your rotation or not getting jobs because they think you are not up to scratch or because you have caused trouble .
It is not a big hospital ; there are about 39 interns in my year , and one of them could easily be put on a list of people who might be an annoyance compared with everyone else .
AD : There was one point in the court case when lawyers for Peninsula Health claimed you were voluntarily providing a ‘ luxury service ’ to advance your career .
AD : You must be considered a hero by many doctors ?
Dr Bolton : The word has been thrown around by some of my close friends , but I don ’ t think I am .
You just have to have a certain personality , which I do , and there are certainly a lot of people who are grateful they didn ’ t have to stick their head out for this and face the consequences .
But if I hadn ’ t been going down the path of anaesthetics or I didn ’ t know what the attitudes were in the department in which I was working , would I have done it if I had known it was going to potentially destroy the progress in my career ?
I don ’ t know .
Hayden Stephens .
As an intern , you have a steep learning curve and are not as efficient as you will be , but it is quite demeaning to be met with the attitude that you are not actually able to manage your jobs , that the hospital will micromanage and hold your hand throughout because it does not think you are actually up to it .
AD : Did you want to challenge the hospital management at the time ?
Dr Bolton : No , it wasn ’ t something I thought we would be able to challenge on our own .
The discussions started about a year into me working , and obviously , when you start your internship , you have to pass all your rotations .
The job I wanted the next year was still in the same hospital , and it was very competitive .
I didn ’ t want to be labelled an issue
Dr Bolton : It has become what is expected to advance your career .
In my experience , observing my senior trainees when I was more junior — especially in the surgical specialties — you are expected to do your boss ’ research .
I ’ ve heard rumours that , if you want to get onto a certain specialty training program , you have to babysit your boss ’ children when they go out after hours .
A lot of the applicants are the same , and most can do their prescribed duties quite well , so it is quite difficult to stand out by just working your rostered hours .
A system needs to be created to separate them .
The supervisors who give references and those who are also college selectors are the ones who created the system that we have had to become a part of if we want to stand out and be chosen .
AD : You were claiming more than $ 8000 in unpaid overtime from Peninsula Health . How are you going to spend it ?
Dr Bolton : This was never about the money .
For the hours I ’ ve put into this case over the past three years , I would hate to calculate my hourly rate .
I have been told the final value will not be that much . There has been debate from both sides about the value , and they are different by a few thousand dollars , and there are issues with interest .
I don ’ t know what the adjusted value is , but I have no expectation of seeing the money anytime soon .
What was the legal basis of the victory ?
DR BOLTON ’ S overtime was done during four rotations between 2019 and 2021 , and mainly involved preparing for her shifts , writing clinical handovers and completing discharge summaries .
Lawyers for Peninsula Health , which runs Frankston Hospital , argued that she did not work overtime because it was not shown on her time sheets .
This was dismissed by the judge as “ misguided ” because of a working environment in the hospital which was “ hostile to the making of claims ”.
Dr Bolton had told the court she was reluctant to seek approval from the department of medicine ’ s clinical director because other doctors told her that he “ had a reputation for being obstructive during phone calls and [ was ] often hard to get hold of ”.
Getting the director ’ s approval for overtime “ was not a simple phone call to make ”, she said .
“ You would be questioned as to why you needed the overtime , why these tasks were necessary , why couldn ’ t they be handed over , why couldn ’ t they be done in your rostered hours .”
In its defence , Peninsula Health pointed to its guidelines , which stated that only the “ clinical director or another member of senior medical staff and preferably a head of unit ” could authorise overtime .
But the judge said all of the clinical staff called by Peninsula Health as witnesses “ were either not aware of the policy or , if they were aware , had never applied the policy in the course of their work ”.
Peninsula Health ’ s lawyers also disputed Dr Bolton ’ s claims on how much overtime she worked , arguing that five minutes “ represented a reasonable period of time for the performance of the tasks in question ”.
But the judge said the evidence was that “ in the ideal world ” these tasks could be done in five minutes .
This was “ substantially divorced from the world faced by Dr Bolton and demonstrated in her evidence ”.
Peninsula Health also argued that “ the work provided by Dr Bolton was … motivated by her desire to impress and advance her career ”.
But the judge dismissed this argument as well , saying she had actually performed the work she was authorised to do .
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