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NSW must take immediate action to address the workforce collapse in NSW hospitals, warned AMA (NSW), which launched its election policy NSW Hospitals: Advanced Life Support Needed today.
“Doctors are abandoning the NSW health system – fed up, burnt out, and attracted by better conditions in other states,” said AMA (NSW) President, Dr Michael Bonning. “If the NSW Government expects to meet the growing health needs of the community it needs to listen to medical experts who guided it through the pandemic.
“The NSW response to the pandemic is demonstrative of the State’s capacity to respond to the crisis at hand. Our managers, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers innovated and transformed the health system to respond to the global crisis. However, that commitment and dedication will be lost unless NSW acts now to support our workforce.”
AMA (NSW) Vice President and Obstetrician, Dr Kathryn Austin said doctors work in the public system out of a sense of commitment to patients.
“Many of us could just focus on private practice and more doctors are choosing to do so. Doctors are leaving the public hospital system or reducing their time because of the outdated conditions and lack of staffing, including nursing, midwives, and allied health staffing. We love working with our teams but don’t want to be forced to compete for scarce resources like it’s the healthcare hunger games. Our patients deserve better.”
AMA (NSW) Councillor, Dr Simon Martel, who is an Anaesthetist, Prehospital and Retrieval Medicine Specialist, said the recent attacks on doctors by the Health Services Union (HSU) have further demoralised senior specialists.
“The anaesthetic rosters in the hospitals that I work in are only holding together as a result of the goodwill of VMOs. Even then multiple lists are being cancelled, despite VMOs picking up extra work. However, that goodwill is quickly evaporating, and talk in the change rooms is of people decreasing public commitments or quitting altogether.
“We need to attract specialists back into the public system, not push more out. A health system without doctors will collapse,” Dr Martel said.
AMA (NSW) welcomes the ALP commitment to lift the wages cap but does not support a Special Commission of Inquiry.
“Doctors specialise in being able to recognise an emergency and react accordingly. Our patients’ lives depend on this critical thinking. Those same individuals, who are working in the health system, know what needs to be done to make the system stronger. Another inquiry and more reports are a waste of valuable resources. That is money that could be spent on the system to make improvements to patients’ lives immediately.
AMA (NSW) Board member, Dr Fred Betros, who is a general surgeon in Western Sydney, has been working in the NSW health system for almost two decades.
“I feel an incredible responsibility to my patients and the hospital community that I work in. But it is incredibly frustrating to see NSW train some of the best doctors in the country, only to watch them leave to work in Queensland or Victoria where they are better supported and remunerated. NSW cannot expect to trade off doctors’ goodwill and sense of duty,” Dr Betros said.
AMA (NSW) worked with Deloitte Financial Advisory Pty Ltd to assess the NSW Health system. The research confirms there is strong disengagement of doctors working in the system and that change is needed.
“The AMA is not afraid of reform, we work within clinical teams with nurse practitioners, midwives and nurses, pharmacists, and others. They are highly skilled, and the system depends on them. We need to work together to strengthen our system,” Dr Bonning said.
The AMA (NSW) outlined three main priorities for the next State Government. Among the priorities in the NSW Hospitals: Advanced Life Support Needed report, it has called for greater support for the health system; support for rural and regional healthcare; and support for doctors’ health and wellbeing.
Central to supporting the health system and stopping the decline in workforce numbers is the need to lift the State Government wages cap.
“With the progress of a significant pay deal in QLD, the health workforce will further collapse if NSW cannot offer more modern terms and conditions,” Dr Austin said.
AMA (NSW) is also calling for a genuine and immediate commitment to reform using the expertise and information we already have, not a delayed and redundant Special Commission of Inquiry. The time to act is now.
Another key priority is the necessity of ensuring the stability of general practice. This includes providing a payroll tax exemption for general practices.
AMA (NSW) is also asking for a commitment to enact policies to support health services in rural and regional NSW, including appropriate contractual arrangements and regionally-based training.
“We need policies to support doctors working in the public hospital system to ensure that the best and brightest doctors in Australia continue to contribute to public hospital care,” Dr Austin said.
Dr Bonning added, “We’re seeing a system under increasing strain by burgeoning patient health needs, and we’re falling behind on every measure. If we continue on this trajectory, our hospitals will be overrun, and patients will face dire healthcare consequences.”
To arrange interviews with:
AMA (NSW) President, Dr Michael Bonning, general practitioner
AMA (NSW) Vice-President, Dr Kathryn Austin, obstetrician & gynaecologist
AMA (NSW) Councillor, Dr Simon Martel, anaesthetist
AMA (NSW) Councillor, Dr Fred Betros, general surgeon
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