Analysis of a national agency offering 40 specialist psychiatry locum jobs shows just how much it could cost compared with what psychiatrists are asking for.
The cost of paying locums to fill psychiatry positions left empty after the mass resignation of public health psychiatrists could be as much as $72 million per year, far more than the requested 25% pay rise the doctors believe they are worth.
The psychiatrists say even if they are given another 25% that won’t even bring them into parity with other Australian states and territories.
The current workforce has already been buckling from the loss of a third of psychiatrists who have left and were not replaced, according to their union, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation NSW.
“Around one in three psychiatrist positions remain unfilled – this presents enormous risk for patient welfare and puts enormous pressure on the existing workforce,” said ASMOF NSW acting executive director Ian Lisser today.
“The NSW government is happy to pay millions in dollars to locum agencies as a band-aid solution, but refuses to make a meaningful offer to our dedicated permanent staff, some of whom have been serving the NSW public for decades.”
Health Services Daily, TMR’s sister publication, has found multiple agencies advertising available locum positions in the NSW public sector. One listed 40 available psychiatry locum positions across the state, including parts of Sydney, Coffs Harbour, Katoomba, Shellharbour, Lismore, Taree, Albury, and Wollongong.
Daily pay rates for 39 of the jobs (one was advertised with an hourly rate of $250) included $2500 (22 positions), $2800 (three positions), $3000 (six positions), $3050 (five positions) and $3300 (three positions).
Some included travel and accommodation, while others provided accommodation or offered additional reimbursement for travel and accommodation.
The daily cost of these 39 jobs alone amounts to $106,550. That’s a weekly cost of $532,750. And an annual cost of $25.572 million (based on a 48-week working year).
If the state government has to fork out for locums to cover even around half of the psychiatrists slated to resign today (100), the cost is eye watering.
Based on an average daily rate of $3000, the government is facing a bill of $72 million to replace 100 of the resigning psychiatrists with locums.
State health minister Ryan Park told a media conference more than a week ago the psychiatrists were asking for a pay rise that amounted to about $90,000 per full-time role, a rise the government could not afford.
In response to a question from the media at a press conference on Saturday, Mr Park said the “average psychiatrist” in the public system was currently earning more than $400,000 annually, in terms of their package that included leave, superannuation and any allowances they received.
ASMOF have refuted this. Mr Lisser told HSD a first-year psychiatrist working full-time (in a 1FTE role) was on $262,000 per year. He said the maximum for more experienced specialists would be $354,000 per year (1FTE).
He estimated about 70% of the mental health workforce was less than 1FTE in NSW.
A 25% pay rise for a specialist earning $300,000 a year amounts to $75,000, which would bring full-time earnings to $375,000.
To employ 100 psychiatrists at that full-time rate would cost the government $37.5 million – not far off half what it would cost to use 100 locums instead.
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ASMOF said there were 416 staff specialist psychiatrist positions in NSW.
“Currently 125 positions are unfilled, leaving 295 people working [before the resignations],” it said.
HSD asked Mr Lisser his view on this analysis.
“My response to that is that this seems to be a government without a plan,” he said.
“One could be forgiven for thinking that this is an attempt to shed the whole mental health services system from the NSW health system…and throw it to the private sector.
“My view is that the government and NSW Health have thrown mental health patients, the psychiatrists and the community under the bus.”