NAPT's Position on the Resignation of Psychiatrists in NSW

The NSW Association of Psychiatry Trainees (NAPT) stands firmly with our consultant psychiatrist colleagues in their decision to consider mass resignation in response to the state's failure to address the ongoing workforce crisis in the NSW public mental health system. This situation presents a dire threat to both patient safety and the future of psychiatry training in NSW.

The mental health system is facing significant challenges, with widespread staff shortages, overwhelming clinical workloads, and a lack of essential supervision for trainees. As highlighted in recent communications with the NSW Government, psychiatry trainees are not equipped or authorised to take on the roles and responsibilities of consultant psychiatrists. Should these resignations proceed, the consequences would include reduced patient care in emergency departments, delayed assessments, and substantial impacts on the quality of training provided to future psychiatrists.

Despite these challenges, NAPT remains committed to the wellbeing of trainees and supporting all psychiatry trainees throughout this crisis. We will continue to advocate for their professional development, adequate supervision and work to minimise the disruption to their training.

We urge the government to immediately reconsider its position and engage in meaningful negotiations with consultant psychiatrists. Without decisive action, both the mental health care of NSW residents and the future workforce of psychiatrists will be critically compromised.

We will post any pertinent updates on NAPT’s role in advocating for psychiatrists on our website here and on our Facebook page.

21 January 2025

Our thoughts are with all NSW psychiatry trainees going into work this morning in an unprecedented moment of uncertainty and fear for our patients and our public mental health system as a whole. NAPT met with policy advisors from Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson’s office last Friday. We followed up our meeting with the letter attached below.

During that meeting, we conveyed the deep fears held by psychiatry registrars across New South Wales regarding the impending resignations. We informed them about the immense implications of the resignations, and reiterated that we would not be performing roles outside our scope or not within safe work practice.

We sought to clarify the government's plan to manage this crisis and support psychiatry trainees in the state. They indicated a plan to cover some of the resignations with locums and VMOs, but were unable to provide any numbers about how many positions have been filled. Unfortunately the specifics of how they, and we, are expected to handle the situation were lacking. The Minister’s policy advisors did say they intended to increase security in emergency departments, but again were vague on specifics.

We specifically noted to the Minister’s policy advisors that first-year registrars would be particularly impacted, and that this would have a major effect on retention and wellbeing. We also noted the flow-on effect for retention of new psychiatrists and attraction to the specialty.

As always, NAPT will continue to advocate on your behalf. Please let us know if you have specific queries or concerns that we can follow up on or assist with. In particular, in this unprecedented time we realise it may be confusing to know who to contact with particular problems (e.g. College/managers/ASMOF/MDO). Please send us a private Facebook message if you are confused and we will endeavour to point you in the right direction.