Calling all public hospital doctors — please submit your safe hours audit!
There’s still time to take part in the AMA’s 2023 Safe Hours Audit for public hospital doctors.
The AMA’s 2023 Safe Hours Audit helps us determine whether there’s been an improvement in rates of fatigue amongst public hospital doctors since the last audit in 2016, and to advocate on your behalf for safer working places and for funding reforms that will provide improved capacity in our hospitals.
Completing the audit also provides you with access to your personal assessment of the fatigue risks of your own working hours. Doctors who are assessed as being at risk are encouraged to raise this with hospital management.
The AMA conducts the audit (which is also open to non-AMA members) every few years to gather data on how many hours our public hospital doctors are working over the course of a week and to determine the fatigue risks of current working arrangements.
The 2016 audit found one in two doctors (53 per cent) were working rosters that put them at significant and higher risk of fatigue to the extent that it could impair performance and affect the health of the doctor and the safety of the patient.
Since launching the audit, we have received feedback about issues some doctors were having in submitting the audit.
All fields are mandatory so even if you did not work on a certain day, you’ll need to check “I did not work on this day” and enter your sleep hours.
It’s also a good idea to select “save your draft” at the bottom of the form if you wish to return to your audit at another time.
The survey tool will remain open until midnight 22 December and the audit period is Monday 20 November to midnight Sunday 26 November.
