
Statement from AMA (NSW) president Dr Kathryn Austin
December 11, 2024
Statement from AMA (NSW) acting president Dr Fred Betros
January 29, 2025The continuing impasse between public hospital psychiatrists and the NSW Government is catastrophic for patients and their families, and a clear sign of a health system in crisis.
This distressing dispute is emblematic of a staffing and budget crisis being felt by doctors, nurses and allied health staff in every specialty at levels we have not seen in NSW in more than 20 years.
Doctors across the public health system are working under outdated industrial arrangements, and the issues we are seeing with psychiatrists are shared by other specialties, particularly in rural and regional NSW.
Awards governing rates of pay and the ways in which doctors work are out of date and not fit for purpose.
We are grateful the previous government invested heavily in hospital infrastructure but new hospitals are of minimal value without expert health staff available to deliver services.
We cannot keep expecting exhausted and stressed healthcare staff to do more with less.
AMA (NSW) has called upon the NSW Government to urgently address the critical staffing shortages being felt across the system, and to support any decisions made by the Industrial Relations Commission to changes awards and determinations for all health professionals.
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