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‘Impending disaster’ for NSW Health as hundreds of doctors schedule mass resignation

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The doctors' union says the state government has let mental health patients in NSW down. Pictured: Chris Minns, Premier of New South Wales

Hospitals are planning to close several specialist mental health beds across New South Wales, as more than half of public psychiatrists prepare to resign.

A doctor has warned mental health patients will likely fill emergency departments as the NSW government scrambles to make arrangements ahead of a scheduled mass resignation.

Some 203 of the state’s 295 public sector psychiatrists resigned in December, and the permanent strike was due to take place on January 21.

Mental health specialists say the public sector system is failing patients due to uncompetitive salaries and chronic understaffing.

Staff are preparing to close seven of the 14 mental health beds at 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 must close, while the Kiloh Center for Acute Inpatient Mental Health Issues will be “unable to maintain its base of (24) beds,” it says. the document.

At Concord Hospital in western Sydney, the 26 full-time psychiatrists managing 172 beds will be reduced to nine specialists.

UNSW psychiatrist Chris Ryan said colleagues were warning that some hospital mental health units could be forced to close if the action went ahead.

The doctors’ union says the state government has let mental health patients in NSW down. Pictured: Chris Minns, Premier of New South Wales

The union said psychiatrists do not want to resign but have been left with few options when the government cannot match the salary given to them in other states.

The union said psychiatrists do not want to resign but have been left with few options when the government cannot match the salary given to them in other states.

“It is not possible to run a large service if there are too few psychiatrists available to run it,” he said.

Emergency departments would inevitably fill up with mental health patients after the resignations, Dr. Ryan added, as patients would not be able to be moved to unstaffed beds.

“They are not going to stop coming just because there are no beds, they are going to continue accumulating,” he said.

“Emergency departments are busy, horrible places, so they’re not ideal environments to recover in… the idea is to get them out very quickly.”

The state government said no decision had been made on bed closures.

NSW Health was scrambling to establish a mental health emergency operations center to “help ease patient flow and pressures” in the face of a looming staffing crisis.

The department’s secretary, Susan Pearce, recently wrote to specialists pleading with them to reconsider their resignations.

He said he recognized the concerns of psychiatrists and the “hugely valuable role they play in the health system”.

Dr Ryan, who is not resigning but supports his colleagues who have decided to do so, said the issues went beyond salaries.

Australian Federation of Salaried Doctors NSW acting chief executive Ian Lisser warned the strike is

Australian Federation of Salaried Doctors NSW acting chief executive Ian Lisser warned the strike is “a looming disaster for NSW and our entire health system”.

“The reason people are quitting 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 can get so much more.” money elsewhere,” he said. saying.

NSW officials have said it is not feasible to accept psychiatrists’ demand for a 25 per cent pay rise, which is well above the three-year 10.5 per cent deal offered to all staff at the public sector.

Australian Federation of Salaried Medical Officers NSW acting chief executive Ian Lisser warned the strike is “a looming disaster for NSW and our entire health system”.

‘With current staffing shortages, we have already seen mental health beds and clinics close across the state. The crisis will cause even more beds and clinics to close.

‘Distraught patients who present to a New South Wales emergency department and require psychiatric treatment could remain in the emergency department for up to five days. “They deserve better,” he said.

On Monday, federal health minister Mark Butler called for both the state government and doctors to return to the table and resume talks.

He said mass resignations could have “devastating consequences for psychiatric patients and their families in New South Wales”.

NSW Health offered professionals a 10.5 per cent pay rise from April last year, which would be the largest pay rise for psychiatry professionals in more than ten years, according to Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson.

This offer, however, was rejected by ASMOF, which is calling for a 25 percent salary increase for psychiatric staff specialists.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park urged psychiatrists to withdraw their resignations

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park urged psychiatrists to withdraw their resignations

The union has long claimed the increase would be in line with psychiatrists’ salaries in other states and would address what they believe is the root cause of staffing shortages in the NSW mental health service.

“We urgently call on 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 requires.”

Health Minister Ryan Park called on doctors to withdraw their resignations.

‘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.

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