By Cindy Yin
Updated
Health officials are scrambling to put contingency plans in place after more than 200 of NSW’s 295 public hospital psychiatrists submitted their resignations over concerns about uncompetitive pay and the fractured mental health system.
Health Minister Ryan Park on Saturday begged the doctors to withdraw their resignations and remain at the bargaining table. The state government has offered hospital staff specialists a pay increase of 10.5 per cent over three years, but they are seeking 25 per cent.
“Don’t do this to patients. Don’t do this to the healthcare system that I know you love and support. Don’t do this to your colleagues who I know you value and trust,” Park said.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park has pleaded with psychiatrists to withdraw their resignations.Credit: Rhett Wyman
A draft management document for contingency planning at Prince of Wales Hospital, seen by the Herald, said the impact on its acute care team would be “significant” when the resignations take effect on January 21.
Remaining psychiatrists at the hospital will no longer have capacity to follow up with patients they discharge, the documents suggest. Specialists’ ability to review treatment plans, as well as how patients are transitioned to other health professionals and/or community mental health services will also be affected.
Park said the government was exploring multiple contingency plans to mitigate effects on patients, including approaching the federal government and private sector for additional workforce, establishing a Mental Health Emergency Operations Centre and engaging police and ambulance.
He warned the resignations’ impact would range from overburdened emergency departments to delayed psychiatric assessments in surgical wards.
Number of psychiatrist resignations submitted, by health district:
- Sydney: 47
- North Sydney: 36
- Justice Health: 30
- South East Sydney: 23
- Western Sydney: 15
- Hunter New England: 11
- St Vincent’s: 10
- Northern NSW: 6
- Illawarra Shoalhaven: 9
- Sydney Children’s Hospital Network: 6
- South West Sydney: 8
- HETI: 1
No beds have been closed in response to the tendered resignations.
In a statement, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said the resignations would significantly affect people with acute and critical mental health needs, forcing patients to seek care from other providers and emergency departments that were “already stressed and at capacity”.
“These are some of the most vulnerable people in our community, and disruption to their care will have wide-ranging impacts for them, their families and carers,” it said.
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Acting executive director of the union representing hospital doctors, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (ASMOF), Ian Lisser, said psychiatrists were committed to patient welfare but had been left with little choice other than to resign after “working in a crumbling system for months”.
“The fact is, psychiatrists are at the table and have been for some time,” he said in response to Park’s comments.
“The NSW government has consistently refused to budge on a 3 per cent pay offer when there is a 30 per cent gap when compared with the pay other psychiatrists receive in other states.”
The government will next meet with the union in the Industrial Relations Commission on Tuesday.
Last month, the Herald revealed that NSW Health was offering “crisis” rates of up to $3050 a day to locum psychiatrists.
Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson said at the time that the government was exploring every option to ease the impact on patients, including finding staff from overseas “to help plug any gaps”.
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