At their Mercy

At their Mercy We put our lives in the hands of surgeons and doctors, yet a culture of bullying poisons the lives and performance of many Australian trainees. This report reveals the dangerous cycle of abuse and humiliation.
Inside Australia's hospitals, verbal abuse and threats are routine in the training of new doctors. In first-hand accounts, young doctors outline the shocking behaviour of senior staff. Caroline Tan was the victim of sexual harassment during her training, but her complaint ended her career in the public hospital system. "He made me feel cheap and degraded on the pretext of wanting to help me", she says. She broke the unwritten rule for surgeons working in public hospitals; "Don't rock the boat. Don't complain.". At the mercy of their supervisors, trainee doctors are under extreme mental pressure. "I remember days when I would just go home and cry", describes one trainee surgeon. Yet this culture is a dangerous threat to both doctor and patient health. As the vice-president of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons explains, "If the doctor's performance is impaired then that's not going to result in good patient safety". With one study finding that one in five medical students had thoughts of suicide in the previous twelve months, it seems that this widespread problem could have grave consequences.
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