Saturday, 18 January 2025

NSW psychiatrists threatening to resign say it’s not about money - it’s about the ‘collapse’ of the system

Psychiatrists say higher salaries needed to retain doctors and attract new ones to care for mental health patients

When Dr James Leeder goes to work as a psychiatry registrar in North Sydney he sees some of the most challenging patients in medicine – sometimes in a single night – “horrific acts of self harm, hopelessness, people in the throes of psychosis, those who may be deeply substance affected and may be agitated and aggressive”.

“This is a hard job done by people who want to help,” he says. However, he sees the toll it is taking on his colleagues when – amid a workforce crisis where one in three psychiatrist positions in the state are vacant – they provide care for double the number of patients they are meant to.

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