Canberra Hospital warned of training program concerns

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians contacted educators and trainees at Canberra Hospital recently, informing them of initial results from its 2018 physician training surveys.

The survey is one way the college assesses different specialist training programs at hospitals across the country and New Zealand, with results shared with program accreditors.

In a letter seen by The Canberra Times, clinicians were told "concerns" about specific aspects of training at Canberra Hospital had been identified.

These concerns could affect the safety of doctors and patients, trainee progression or the quality of their learning environment, the college says.

Concerns may include workload issues, trainee or educator fatigue, low morale, and quality of trainee orientation.

"The [college] has a duty of care to review all concerning responses and ensure the safety of patients, trainees and educators," the letter said.

"We will shortly request Canberra Hospital to review each concern and where validated, tell us what they will be doing to address them."

The college said its program accreditors would be provided with a summary of the concerns so the issues could be monitored.

The college is responsible for accrediting a number of specialist training programs at hospitals such as cardiology, medical oncology and general medicine.

Canberra Health Services CEO Bernadette McDonald said she welcomed the feedback as it allowed the hospital to focus on areas for improvement.

She noted the survey was conducted almost a year ago and it had a "relatively low" response rate - 35 per cent of trainees and 23 per cent of educators.

"It is still a useful source of information which helps us to identify areas for improvement and will help Canberra Health Services with the work we are already doing to improve workplace culture and performance across the organisation," she said.

"We look forward to working with [the college] both on the current results and going forward, to ensure any feedback derived from their survey is acted upon in a spirit of cooperation to deliver better outcomes for our trainees and educators and by extension, our consumers."

Trainees and educators were not told about the specifics of the problems found, but Ms McDonald said most related to educators and only one concern was raised about trainees, which related to the training environment.

"We will continue to seek feedback from our trainees and educators to ensure our service is meeting their needs," she said.

Opposition acting health spokeswoman Nicole Lawder called on the government to immediately address the concerns, saying in the past they have been overlooked.

"If concerns around training are accurate and aren't addressed immediately, these issues could potentially compromise the delivery of health care, and cause harm to staff," she said.

"We have seen this in the loss or reduction of accreditation in troubled areas of the Canberra Hospital."

The college said the notices were part of standard letters sent to trainees at hospitals where concerns were raised.

It was not immediately able to give an indication of how many hospitals were notified about concerns found.

"The [college] undertakes regular evaluations of trainee programs across Australia and New Zealand via a number of methods including surveys of trainees," a spokesman said.

"The 2018 physician training survey gave physician trainees and supervisors the opportunity comment on their training."