Emergency doctors at Westmead Hospital are being forced to chase large portions of their own pay for months at a time, in what the Doctors Union has labelled a "byzantine, dysfunctional and utterly disrespectful" system.
Staff specialists working in emergency departments are entitled to an allowance that forms an integral part of their salary, equivalent to approximately a quarter of their take-home pay. This allowance is to compensate for the unique combination of intense, unpredictable and shift-based work inherent to emergency medicine.
At Westmead, doctors say it is routinely delayed by up to eight weeks and only paid after repeated escalation by the Union.
ASMOF NSW President Dr Nicholas Spooner said the situation was indefensible.
"Doctors working in one of the busiest emergency departments in the country are being forced to chase the pay they are entitled to.
"This is not a one-off failure. This has been going on for close to 10 years. It points to a dysfunctional NSW Health system that is completely incapable of performing even the most basic administrative functions.
"If ASMOF did not step in and escalate these cases, these doctors would be forced to wait even longer to be paid the money they've earned, if they were to be paid at all. That is a disgrace."
ASMOF says the delays stem from a complex, multi-step approval process for what should be a routine entitlement.
Emergency physician at Westmead Hospital, Dr Danielle Unwin, said the process was exhausting and demoralising.
"We submit everything on time, but then it just disappears into a black hole.
"This is not a small amount of money. This allowance can be up to 25 per cent of our income. When it's delayed for weeks or months, it has a real impact.
"The longest I've personally waited was around eight weeks, and it was only resolved after the Union escalated it."
Dr Unwin said the issue was widespread across hospitals.
"This has been happening for close to ten years. It's not new, and it's not isolated to Westmead.
"Colleagues at other hospitals, including Nepean and Blacktown, are dealing with the same problem and face exactly the same difficulties in resolving it.
"There is nothing unusual about these payments. They should be processed as part of the normal pay cycle, not treated like some special request."
Dr Spooner said NSW Health's failure to fix the issue reflects a system under strain.
"We are in the middle of a workforce crisis, with doctors exhausted, understaffed and under relentless pressure.
"And yet, at the same time, NSW Health cannot even guarantee that doctors will be paid correctly or on time."
ASMOF is calling on NSW Health to ensure emergency department allowances are paid properly and on time as a routine part of doctors' wages.
"Our emergency department doctors have enough on their plate caring for gravely ill patients and saving lives. They should not have to fight to be paid the money they've earned.
"If NSW Health cannot fix something this basic after ten years, serious questions need to be asked about accountability at the highest levels."
