Hospitals will be forced to close specialist mental health beds in NSW as more than half of psychiatrists in the public health system prepare to resign over working conditions.
One doctor has warned that mental health patients are likely to overwhelm emergency departments as the NSW government scrambles to make arrangements ahead of the planned mass discharge.
About 203 of the 295 public sector psychiatrists resigned in December, with the permanent strike set to take place on January 21.
Mental health specialists have quit due to uncompetitive salaries and chronic understaffing.
As a result, staff are preparing to close seven of the 14 beds in the mental health rehabilitation unit at Sydney’s Prince Of Wales Hospital, a leaked internal document has revealed.
At least four of the hospital’s 12 mental health intensive care unit beds will also be closed, while the Kiloh Center for Acute Inpatient Mental Health Problems will be “incapable of maintaining their (24) bed bases,” the document said. .
At Concord Hospital in Sydney’s west, the 26 full-time psychiatrists managing 172 beds will be reduced to nine specialists.
Chris Ryan, a psychiatrist from UNSW, said colleagues warned that some hospital mental health units will close completely if the action continues.
The doctors’ union says psychiatric patients in NSW have been failed by the state government. Pictured: NSW Premier Chris Minns
The union said psychiatrists do not want to resign but they have little choice if the government cannot match the salaries given in other states.
“There is no way to run a large service if there are very few psychiatrists available to run it,” he said.
Emergency departments would inevitably be filled with mental health patients after discharge, Dr Ryan added, because patients could not be transferred to unstaffed beds.
“They’re not going to stop coming just because there are no beds, they’re going to keep rising,” he said.
‘Emergency rooms are busy and terrible places, so not a great environment to get better in… the idea is you have to get them out very quickly.’
The state government said no decisions have been taken on closure of beds.
NSW Health rushed to set up an emergency mental health operations center to “help alleviate patient flow and pressure” due to the looming staffing crisis.
Department secretary Susan Pearce recently wrote a letter to the specialists imploring them to reconsider their dismissals.
She acknowledged psychiatrists’ concerns and the “hugely valuable role they play in the health care system.”
Dr. Ryan, who is not resigning but supports colleagues who have, said the issue goes beyond wages.
Ian Lisser, acting director of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation NSW, warned the strike is ‘an impending disaster for NSW and our entire healthcare system’
“The reason people are quitting their jobs is because we can’t get people into the system to take jobs, and the reason we can’t get people into the system to take jobs is because you have a lot of work elsewhere.” can get more money,” he says. said.
NSW officials have said they cannot feasibly agree to psychiatrists’ demands for a 25 per cent pay increase, which is well above the three-year 10.5 per cent deal offered to all public sector staff.
Ian Lisser, acting director of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation NSW, warned the strike “is an impending disaster for NSW and our entire healthcare system”.
“Due to the current staffing shortage, we have already seen mental health beds and clinics close across the state. Due to the crisis, even more beds and clinics will close.
‘Patients in distress who presented to NSW A&E and required treatment by psychiatrists could stay in A&E for up to five days. They deserve better,” he said.
On Monday, federal Health Minister Mark Butler urged the state government and doctors to resume negotiations or risk ‘devastating consequences for psychiatric patients and their families’.
NSW Health has offered professionals a 10.5 per cent pay rise since April last year, which Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson said would be the biggest pay rise for psychiatry professionals in more than a decade.
However, that offer was rejected by ASMOF, which wants a 25 percent pay increase for psychiatric specialists.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park urged psychiatrists to withdraw their resignations
The union has long argued the increase would be in line with psychiatrist salaries in other states and address what they say is the root cause of understaffing in NSW’s mental health system.
‘We urge the Minns Government to take action to fill the 140 vacant psychiatrist positions in NSW by providing the pay and conditions necessary to attract and retain the doctors our mental health system needs .’
Health Minister Ryan Park begged doctors to rescind their resignations.
‘Don’t do this to patients. Don’t do this to the health care system that I know you love and support. Don’t do this to your colleagues who I know you value and trust,” Park said.