South Metropolitan Health sees record cohort of medical interns after introduction of first-of-a-kind support

A first-of-its-kind support service for junior doctors has helped improve workforce shortages at one of the State’s biggest hospital service providers.

South Metropolitan Health Service had 132 medical interns begin this month, the provider’s largest intake to date and one of the biggest in the country.

SMHS clinical services area director Mark Monaghan said he attributed the large cohort to a shift in workplace culture that followed the introducition of its Doctor Support Unit.

The DSU was launched in June, 2024, to provide doctors in training with professional development and wellbeing support.

The program only covers junior doctors for now but will eventually assist all doctors working for the SMHS.

The service was set up in response to feedback from staff wanting prioritisation of issues such as rosters, leave and overtime, doctor wellbeing, education and training.

Dr Monaghan said by prioritising these concerns SMHS had become a preferred employer.

SMHS, which operates Fiona Stanley, Fremantle, Rockingham General, the Murray District hospitals and the Peel Health Campus, was only ranked fifth overall for a preferred location by students for their internships in 2025.

More than 100 students gave the hospital service provider their first preference in 2026, making it the second ranked in WA.

“Doctor shortages is true and it’s globally true, and post COVID, it’s been particularly so… I think there’s more of a sense we need to balance life better and so organisations have to respond to that,” Dr Monaghan said.

“If you have a place where people aren’t being cared for, aren’t getting their leave and they go, then you’re constantly on the back foot trying to get your numbers up. You haven’t got enough doctors, then it’s a harder workplace to work in.

“We haven’t nailed it yet but we’re doing so much better than what we were, and we have lots of good people trying hard and that means we attract people to come.”

Dr Monaghan said the DSU was improving doctor shortages, meaning the hospital service provider was less reliant on recruiting a workforce from overseas.

“We have these wonderful UK and Irish graduates coming over every August and they support our workforce, and that’s brilliant, but we’re needing a lot less of them because more doctors are staying on because they like it here and that’s good for self-sufficiency,” he said.

“That pleased me more than anything, the fact that people want to hang around.”

Medical intern Ainsley Somers is one of the first interns to do a neonatal placement at Fiona Stanley Hospital, after it was introduced last year — and moved from Canberra for the role.

“I was looking at what different rotations they offered and this particular rotation, on the neonatal department, is just not something that I’d seen anywhere else,” she said.

“We don’t have much of an opportunity as students to get heaps of exposure to the neonatal department, and so, I thought if I don’t get the chance to do it as a junior, I didn’t know when I would be able to have the opportunity to see what it’s like.”

The DSU is also hoping to boost rural placements. Ahmed Abrar, a junior doctors testing out working up north, will be based in general medicine in Broome for the next 12 weeks.

“I chose to come to Broome because, in a rural setting, you get to see a broad range of presentations that you wouldn’t otherwise see in a metro setting,” he said.

“I’m able to positively contribute to the shortage of doctors, so I understand my role here, I do have a greater deal of responsibility, a greater deal of challenges, which I look forward to tackling.

“If given the opportunity I’m invested in working in a rural setting for the future as well.”