NSW public hospital psychiatrists welcome the Industrial Relations Commission's (IRC) decision to make a new interim attraction and retention Award. But they say the NSW Government must stop spinning the numbers and rebuild the public psychiatry workforce, so patients are no longer stranded for days in emergency departments or waiting months to see a psychiatrist.
On Tuesday 29 September, the IRC determined it would make a new Interim Award on substantially the same terms as the Psychiatry Staff Specialists Attraction and Retention (State) Interim Award 2025. Secured by ASMOF NSW - The Doctors Union, the Award provides Staff Specialist psychiatrists with a 10% attraction and retention allowance. Together with an existing 10% NSW Health allowance, this gives them a combined interim uplift of 20%.
The Union applied to extend the entitlement to the psychiatry attraction and retention allowance as the original Interim Award's 12-month term drew to a close and NSW Health did not oppose the application. The new Interim Award will remain in force until an Award covering Staff Specialists in the substantive Award Reform arbitration takes effect.
ASMOF NSW Councillor and psychiatrist Dr Yvonne Nguyen said:
"Public psychiatrists are relieved the Union has secured a new Interim Award on the same terms as the last one. It has kept psychiatrists in the public system who would otherwise have walked out the door. But it has not fixed the crisis, and nobody should pretend it has."
When the Government opposed the original Award last year, the IRC found that "it is no exaggeration to describe the state of mental health care in the New South Wales public system as being in crisis". Its decision recorded that 31.6% of Staff Specialist psychiatry positions were vacant in October 2024, before most of the 183 resignations took effect. Vacancy rates had risen by 271% since July 2019.
Patients are paying the price. The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that 17 mental health patients were recently held in the emergency department at St Vincent's Hospital. Fifteen were waiting for beds in mental health units that were already full, and two had been in the emergency department for ten days. A senior manager at the hospital asked the Downing Centre Local Court to stop sending defendants there.
Children face long waits too. In a national survey conducted in 2022 and published this year, 190 GPs estimated an average wait of 113 days to see a psychiatrist. They considered waits of 7 to 26 days acceptable.
"When a person in a mental health crisis spends ten days in an emergency department waiting for a bed, the system has failed them. When a child cannot get in to see a psychiatrist until they are at crisis point, the system has failed them. That is happening in NSW right now," Dr Nguyen said.
The NSW Ministry of Health's recently released Review and Planning for Mental Health Services report concedes that "almost no mental health service in any state or territory in Australia met the demand for services" estimated under the national planning framework. Yet it concludes that no area of NSW has "compromised mental health care services". However, the report relies on data from 2021-22 and 2022-23, before psychiatrists' mass resignations, and does not examine psychiatrist vacancies, emergency department waits or waiting lists.
NSW RANZCP Branch Chair and ASMOF NSW Councillor Dr Ian Korbel said the decision acknowledges the challenges facing NSW's public mental health workforce:
"The people of NSW need a strong and sustainable psychiatry workforce. The Government has recognised these challenges, and its increased investment in training and workforce development is welcome.
"Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go. We need an integrated mental health system that delivers the care people with mental health conditions need to lead fulfilling lives. Building that system is essential to retaining the workforce NSW needs for the future."
Dr Nguyen said the Government has a record of using figures that do not stand up.
"The Government's own review uses years-old data and doesn't count vacant psychiatrist positions at all, when almost a third of them were empty even before the mass resignations took effect. You cannot fix a workforce crisis you refuse to measure. The Government needs to stop managing the headlines and start rebuilding the workforce."
Sources
- IRC decision: Australian Salaried Medical Officers' Federation (New South Wales) v Health Secretary [2026] NSWIRComm 19 (Full Bench, 29 September 2026).
- IRC decision: Health Secretary, Ministry of Health v Australian Salaried Medical Officers' Federation (New South Wales) (No 2) [2025] NSWIRComm 27 (Full Bench, 3 October 2025). Pinpoints:
- allowance structure: [4]-[5]
- 183 resignations: [8]
- vacancy rate increase of 271%: [69]
- Government's arguments: [73]
- 31.6% vacancy rate: [74]
- Campbelltown beds: [96]
- "in crisis": [99]
- "did not seriously challenge": [100]
- lowest base salary: [101]
- Treasury's $30.5 million estimate: [127]
- St Vincent's figures and the Minister's funding comment: Sydney Morning Herald, 28 September 2026; also reported by NewsBeep.
- Adolescent waits of 113 days: O'Dea B, et al., Australian Journal of Primary Health, 17 August 2026
- One child psychiatrist per 571 children; shortfall of 230 by 2028: RANZCP Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Workforce Report, 15 July 2026
- Government review quotes and data years: NSW Ministry of Health, Review and Planning for Mental Health Services, p. 8
- $438,000 salary claim: AAP FactCheck, 3 July 2025
- $700 million claim: ABC News / Four Corners, 5 June 2025
- $295 per person, lowest in Australia (2023-24): AIHW, Mental health: Expenditure
About us:
ASMOF NSW - The Doctors Union represents salaried doctors across New South Wales and advocates for their working conditions and a strong public health system.
