In 1999, Dr Karen Nicholls became the second ever Torres Strait Islander doctor known to graduate from university.
Since then, she says there’s been a cultural shift in the health industry's understanding of the valuable skill sets Indigenous professionals bring to the table.
“We become doctors, we become clinically good, but we can also provide cultural safety with the way in which we do things,” she said.
“That is often why we get into medicine, because we want to do good by community.
“You cannot be clinically safe without being culturally safe – the two go hand in hand.”
But despite explicit pleas from Torres Strait locals for more homegrown doctors, and their willingness to work there, healthcare workers say significant barriers are obstructing them.
NITV has heard that housing, internal policies and discrimination are some of the reasons why Torres Strait Islanders feel they are unable to gain employment with the region's primary health care provider – the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS).
Dr Nichols was part of a group of twenty Torres Strait Islander doctors that visited the Torres Strait last year, some connecting with their homelands for the first time.
In April 2024, AIDA and community Elders co-ordinated a historic gathering of doctors on Waiben, Thursday Island. Credit: Carli Willis, NITV
The report on the historic visit showed that 82 per cent of the cohort were interested in coming home to work, and 100 per cent were considering ways to further contribute to the health needs of Torres Strait Islanders.
AIDA CEO Donna Burns said the united voice of the doctors was powerful.
“These [doctors] expressed an interest in working back home with community, where we know the health disparity is so great,” she said.
“That cultural understanding will be so powerful in someone's healing journey, and we are really committed to [advocating] to shake up a system."
Lyola Willis stands with AIDA CEO Donna Burns and is one of the Torres Strait Islander doctors who wants to come home to work. Credit: Carli Willis
However, there are no Torres Strait Islander doctors based in the Torres Strait or Northern Peninsula Area communities.
At the launch of a recent report by AIDA, doctors divulged negative experiences of contacting the TCHHS to gain employment and being dismissed.
The TCHHS is facing scrutiny over the discriminatory practices and policies from the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union, the Australian Workers Union and the Together Union Queensland.
An investigation is also underway into the cultural safety of the organisation's processes, with a report originally slated for release in June 2024 now due in mid-2025.
Executive General Manager for the Northern Sector of TCHHS, Marita Sagigi, said it was alarming to learn the doctors were unsupported when they reached out.
She said the health service was reviewing recruitment practices.
“The importance of having somebody who speaks language, who people can feel comfortable with and engage in,” she said.
“Make sure that we're able to not only look at a clinical capacity and experience of a professional, but also marry that up with the importance of that cultural safety they provide.”
In a statement to NITV, a spokesperson for the TCHHS said it was working to implement the 35 recommendations made in a recruitment review from last year.
“Particularly looking at processes that recognise and highlight the value of employing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” they said.
The spokesperson said the staff housing policy reflected a bigger issue of a lack of housing across the region.
“As a result, the Torres and Cape HHS is building its own staff accommodation in Bamaga, Pormpuraaw, Badu, Laura, Lockhart River, and Horn Island to help offset this issue,” they said.
In a statement to NITV, the state's Health Minister Tim Nicholls said he was meeting with the TCHHS Executive Board this week to discuss issues relating to workforce and access to health services.
A spokesperson for Premier David Crisafulli said workforce the Government was committed to growing the health workforce by 34,500 workers by 2032.
Barriers exacerbated by remoteness
Dr Nicholls said many of the barriers faced by the AIDA doctors were not unique to the Torres Strait and a major barrier was training opportunities.
“If you want to be an ophthalmologist – an eye specialist – there might not be a training program here,” she said.
“So even though you might want to go back and train here, that opportunity might not have been created as yet.
“The hope is that we can work and create the opportunities.”
Ms Sagigi said the visit arranged by AIDA had helped the health service understand what pathways they currently have and how they improve.
“How do we make sure that we are providing competency and confidence in the clinical practice of our First Nation staff, if they are to come into our organisation?" she said.
Ms Sagigi started out at the HHS as a year 10 work experience student and is passionate about Torres Strait Islanders having access to a career in health. Credit: Carli Willis, NITV
Torres Strait Islander doctors pushing for change
Ms Burns said the coming together of stakeholders was a step in the right direction to bringing doctors home.
“Working in isolation would make systemic change very, very hard,” she said
“[Our doctors] would like a pathway here that absolutely highlights, emphasises, prioritises and privileges their Torres Strait Islander Heritage.
“That includes understanding culture, understanding language, understanding people, understanding families, understanding all of the beautifulness that comes with being a Torres Strait Islander.”
Young industry leaders, Elders and regional stakeholders met with AIDA to hear the outcomes of a report. Credit: Carli Willis, NITV
She said the exercise was the first step in creating a ‘nationhood of Torres Strait Islander doctors’, who were connecting and supporting each other.
“We share our experiences, give advice, give mentorship … that was not there when I began my medical career,” she said.
Ms Sagigi said while there was more work to be done implementing the findings of the reviews, she was proud of work the TCHHS was doing to provide traineeship opportunities to school goers.
She said through federal funding, the HHS was able to recruit 20 school-based trainees across the region last two years.
“We rotated them through all the different areas… [it's] a great opportunity for those students to consider whereabouts in health they would like to work.”
