A doctor at an ED frequently operating at 200% capacity says the work is so demoralising that the delivery to the ED team of leftover doughnuts by a local bakery is now providing relief from the distress. 

The account is included in a union report into Modbury Hospital in Adelaide, where ED doctors describe conditions for clinicians and patients as unsafe and a “daily shitshow”.

It warned that staff were experiencing burnout, compassion fatigue and “spiralling” absenteeism as they struggled to provide adequate care for the number of patients presenting to the ED.

One doctor reportedly said: “We are at our wits end and in the years I have been here, this is the worst I have ever seen, including the total number of patients waiting for a hospital bed in our ED.”