1. SafeDr: protecting doctors

Transforming medicine

Medicine is a profession of extraordinary privilege and responsibility. Yet behind the veneer of professionalism, too many doctors work in unsafe environments that place them - and their patients - at risk. SafeDr exists because this must change.

Every health worker, including every doctor, has the right to a safe workplace. And every doctor can help shape a safer, more respectful healthcare system - and safer patient care.

A turning point for every medical workplace

Australia’s ground breaking reforms to Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws mark a decisive shift for all workplaces, including every medical workplace.

The law now recognises that psychosocial hazards are as dangerous as physical hazards because they predispose people to significant work-related mental injury. Under the July 2025 Model Code of Practice for the Healthcare and Social Assistance Industry (see SafeWork Australia), excessive job demands, denial of leave, hostile workplaces, discrimination, racism, sexual harassment, bullying, and any form of violence are explicitly unlawful.

Topic 3  breaks down the key laws and reforms you need to know:

• Model Code of Practice on psychosocial hazards (Healthcare & Social   Assistance);
• Sex Discrimination Act amendments (positive duty to eliminate hostile workplaces    and pregnancy- and carer-based discrimination);
• Workplace Gender Equality Amendment Act;
• National Anti-Racism Framework;
• Whistle blower protection laws;
• the Fair Work Act;
• Wage Theft laws; and
• Industrial manslaughter laws, which now include potentially preventable deaths such as suicide.

The intent of these new laws is clear: prevent and reduce workers’ compensation claims for physical and mental injury. The health system - and the medical profession - are not exempt.

Naming the harm in medicine

Healthcare sits among the industries with the highest number of serious work-related injury compensation claims - but these claims are rarely made by injured doctors. Widespread fear of medical career damage deters claims, incident reports and complaints, masking the true scale of occupational harm in medicine - a form of workplace abuse in itself.

Doctors in training are disproportionately impacted when employers ignore the Model Code of Practice on psychosocial hazards. Regular requests to cover extra shifts and heavy loads, to work while sick, or to forgo leave entitlements due to poor budgeting or planning predispose junior doctors to psychological harm.

What the new duties demand of employers

The transformational WHS requirements now mean employers — including directors and officers and practice owners — must embed psychosocial hazard controls into governance, workplace design and training. Management initiatives must be implemented through confidential complaint and incident reporting systems, clear policies, and data monitoring and analytics to address both physical and psychological hazards.

Employers can now face significant fines and penalties for passive non-compliance, vicarious liability or bystander silence, as well as criminal liabilities and imprisonment.

Recent examples underscore the point:

• Peninsula Health (Frankston Hospital, VIC) - $316,260 civil penalty; NSW Health (statewide public system) — $229.8 million settlement; Victorian public health services (multiple) - $175 million in-principle settlement for unpaid overtime and wage theft;
• Monash Health - $160,000 fine for a patient suicide in hospital and unsafe environment risk.
• Coroners Court of Victoria - $379,157 fine for a toxic workplace culture that contributed to an employee’s suicide (bullying, intimidation, invasions of privacy, exposure to traumatic materials, excessive workloads).
• NSW Ambulance - fine reported at 'almost $190,000'; guilty plea to a WHS breach after a paramedic died by suicide.
• Services Australia - proceedings listed following a Comcare investigation into a worker being stabbed at a Centrelink office; WHS charge alleges failure to ensure health and safety (potential maximum fine $1.5 million).

The quantum of these penalties should focus the minds of government-appointed directors and officers of hospitals and other health services on effective, preventive investment that stops workplace abuses and mental injury - and reduces the personal and financial costs of non-compliance with legislated WHS laws. Maximum monetary penalties up to about $20 million are listed on the Safe Work Australia website.

The barrier: WHS literacy

The biggest obstacle to adopting WHS standards in medicine is poor WHS literacy. Keeping pace with complex, changing, legalistic information spread across multiple regulator websites is a challenge for anyone.

Where SafeDr fits - and why it matters

SafeDr puts WHS rights in every doctor’s pocket - ready when you need them 24/7.

Far from encouraging litigation or more claims, SafeDr emphasises prevention and protection through system change. Naming the legal risk of unsafe workplaces is not alarmist - it is responsible.

For healthcare, the implications of WHS reform are immediate. Better literacy on recent changes protects patients and all health workers, including employees, contractors and visiting consultants.

Safe medical workplaces are not a luxury. They are a legal right, a moral obligation, and a professional necessity.

United, the medical profession can transform workplace culture - so doctors thrive, patients are safer, and future generations can build sustainable, brilliant careers.

SafeDr exists to amplify this optimism while confronting hard truths and equipping doctors with the literacy they need on WHS law reform. Compliance isn’t optional; it’s urgent.

The SafeDr website content and functionality will be continually improve with your feedback. Please also consider sharing the SafeDr website with a colleague - or with your supervisor or employer.

The content of SafeDr has been based on information on regulator websites including:

Safe Work Australia and State Worksafe 

Federal (Commonwealth) Comcare

Fair Work Commission 

Fair Work Ombudsman 

Australian Human Rights Commission and State counterparts

State-based Mental Health Commissions 

Ahpra