Media Release: Mental health crisis: Greens urge investment in workforce instead of costly temporary fix
Friday 17 January 2025
The NSW Greens are calling on the government to invest in the state’s psychiatry workforce rather than costing the taxpayer a fortune and patients their mental health by opting to fill positions with locum staff.
The call was made as public hospitals brace for “catastrophic” disruptions next week caused by the NSW Government’s failure to deliver essential reform to recruit and retain the state’s psychiatric workforce.
More than two-thirds of the state’s staff specialist psychiatrists will resign on 21 January citing patient safety concerns, with the NSW Government planning to rely on temporary staff with costly private agency fees to fill the impending gaps.
As early as 2023, in response to questioning by Dr Cohn as Chair of the inquiry into equity, accessibility and appropriate delivery of outpatient and community mental health care in New South Wales, NSW Health confirmed that psychiatry vacancies were already a “significant problem” with “many” being lost to the private sector. This ongoing issue and the government’s increasing reliance on locum workforce has been confirmed through Dr Cohn’s questioning at Budget Estimates.
Quotes attributable to Dr Amanda Cohn, Greens spokesperson for Health including Mental Health, former GP and locum doctor:
“It’s abhorrent that the Minns Labor government is so desperate to stick to their party line that they are willing to cost patients their mental health and cost taxpayers a fortune instead of simply paying essential health workers what they’d earn in other states.
“I know that there are interstate doctors who have committed to not take these locum jobs in support of their NSW colleagues.
“Even if they could manage to fill those shifts, extremely vulnerable patients will lose the relationship they have with a trusted professional. This is a serious and avoidable risk of re-traumatisation.
“The Health Minister said himself a year ago that this Government was determined to see health spending flow directly to clinicians and not private locum agencies.
“It’s time for the Health Minister to put his money where his mouth is and stop this catastrophe that the NSW government is squarely responsible for.
“It’s unacceptable to ask already overstretched health workers to find productivity gains instead of negotiating in good faith to fill the existing widespread vacancies across the state for psychiatrists in the public sector.
“Now that Premier Minns is back in the country, meeting with psychiatrists must be an urgent priority.
“I am grateful to health workers advocating for reform to our mental health system to benefit people experiencing mental ill-health and the broader community on top of their already challenging workloads.”
Media contact: Alice Gifford [email protected] 0420 908 136