The AMA(SA) is the community’s most trusted voice in advocating for medical practitioners, doctors in training and a strong and effective health care system in South Australia. The association provides advice on government policy, legislative and regulatory changes, on medical training and on important public health issues. It uses its relationships with government, media and the health sector to give a voice to major health issues affecting members, doctors in training, students and South Australian patients and communities.

The AMA(SA) has taking the lead in ‘drawing a line in the sand’ over bullying following the Parliamentary Inquiry into Workplace Fatigue and Bullying in South Australian Hospitals and Health Services.

The association held a Culture and Bullying Summit on 29 February 2020 to drive improvements in the workplace culture in public hospitals and health services and to reduce bullying. Politicians, government officials, administrators and partners from across the health system joined doctors and medical students at the the University of Adelaide's Health and medical Sciences Building on 29 February 2020 for the AMA(SA) Culture and Bullying Summit. 

‘The focus must be on positive change to fix the known serious problems in the health system such as the impacts of poor leadership,’ Dr Moy says. He says there is compelling evidence over many years that doctors, and particularly junior doctors, were frequent victims of bullying – by their employers, by superiors, by colleagues and other practitioners.

The Doctors in Training 2019 Hospital Health Check Survey, conducted in South Australia in 2019, found around half of respondents had been bullied or harassed, and the Inquiry heard about 50 per cent of surgeons said they were being bullied. 

View the results here: AMA(SA) 2019 Hospital Health Check.

The AMA(SA) is calling for a system-wide approach to improve the workplace culture in the SA Health System, including better training for managers.