A report by the Australian Medical Association has revealed WA doctors are experiencing high levels of burnout in children’s hospitals and health services.

The Hospital Health Check 2025 study received responses from nearly 1,500 junior doctors, and doctors in training across WA hospitals.

The report also found nearly a third of junior doctors have experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment in the workplace.

AMA president Dr Michael Page says the main factor contributing to the high stress levels in doctors is overcrowding in hospitals.  

“We don’t have enough beds in our hospitals which is causing our emergency departments to be full of patients because the patients in the emergency department are waiting for beds on the ward,” he says.

“There’s no doubt that the major factor is the inadequacy of our current health infrastructure and workforce.”

AMA president Dr Michael Page

“That then causes our ambulances to ramp outside of the hospitals because the paramedics can’t get the patients out of the ambulances and into the emergency department, so we’ve got this choked up hospital system.”

Dr Page says doctors are working at maximum capacity all the time, and this is one of the reasons why doctors are experiencing burnout.

He says the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the reasons why there is a shortage of doctors in Australia.

“COVID exposed our global workforce shortages, it exposed how unable we are to train our own doctors in Australia sufficient to our needs,” he says.

“Part of our doctor shortage is due to the fact that we couldn’t bring in doctors during COVID, but we should not be so dependent on overseas migration of doctors.

“We really need to be more self-sufficient as a country in training doctors and governments have not shown the ambition that they need to show for Australia to become self-sufficient when it comes to training doctors and medical students.”

The results from this year’s survey have improved in some key areas compared to recent years, but Dr Page says bullying and harassment of hospital staff is still common.

“That extra pressure that is there does cause these other problems to pop up,” he says.

“It’s not an excuse for things like bullying and harassment but systems under pressure will always have more of these intolerable behaviours, they’ll always pop up in a system that’s under pressure.”

Doctors’ Health Advisory Service Western Australia is an independent and confidential support service who provide mental health assistance to doctors and medical students in WA.

DHASWA manager Amy Raats says burnout is a major problem in the medical industry.

“It is a systemic issue but unfortunately I know how difficult it is for the hospitals right now,” she says.

“They don’t have enough work force, they don’t have enough funding, everyone’s kind of doing the best that they can with the situation we are currently in.”

Ms Raats says burnout effects doctors in different ways and has many symptoms.

“One of the main things you will notice is that you’re emotionally exhausted, it’s called ‘compassion fatigue’, and you start kind of not feeling the same way about your patients as you did before,” she says.

“It has a massive impact on your mood and how you’re seeing things, you’ll become a lot more irritable, just little things will get to you a lot quicker than they did before, you can also feel quite useless in what you’re doing.”

DHASWA manager Amy Raats

“It can manifest in a lot of different ways but if you’re noticing that love and drive that you had when you went into medicine is starting to falter, you’re feeling like you just can’t be bothered going to work, you’re not sleeping, you’re not eating I think these are all very strong indicators that you could be facing burnout.”

She says doctors are naturally ambitious and usually don’t realise they’re struggling.

“When you’re a doctor you’re a high achiever and you want to stay updated, you want to stay in everything, and you want to be successful,” she says.

Curtin University medical student Alyssa Selesnew says she experienced burnout during her biomedical science degree.

“I found it pretty tough like I was finding myself studying all of the time, it’s a very demanding degree,” she says.

“There were definitely points where I was feeling very drained, and when it would hit exam season I would be just trying to push through and get to the end and by the time the GAMSAT [Graduate Medical School Admissions Test] came around I was feeling very rundown, my skin had broken out, everything was just not feeling great.

“In my own research I’ve seen students and people in medicine who are really struggling just to work whilst studying at the same time because it is so demanding.”

Ms Selesnew recently sat the GAMSAT exam and is applying to become a doctor. She says she is aware of the stress doctors are placed under, and accepts it is part of the job.

“Things like burnout, you hear the stories of like doctors who crash cars after doing these really big, long overnight shifts, those things can be pretty scary,” she says.

“Obviously junior doctors are kind of put wherever the hospital wants them to work at the time, but as you go later on into your career and you choose a specialty, that’s going to make a big difference on the hours you’re working, and the burnout rates you might experience.”

Ms Raats says although doctor’s mental health continues to be an issue, there has been an increase in the number of doctors reaching out for support.

“Based on the statistics we get for our call line we do get quite a few of the younger doctors who are willing to say that they need some help,” she says.

“That might not necessarily translate to the older specialists because of the generational differences in seeking help.

“It’s across the board but it is potentially getting a little bit better.”

If you are affected by any of the issues in this story, support is available. Drs4Drs is a 24/7, free and confidential mental health support service for doctors and medical students in Australia. Please call 1300 374 377.