More than 200 psychiatrists are poised to leave NSW Health en masse next week, and it’s not the first time doctors have tried this tactic.
The NSW government has less than one week left to come up with better pay and conditions for the state’s mental health doctors, following the mass resignation of 203 NSW Health psychiatrists.
Just 92 psychiatrists will be left working across the state, which has the lowest per capita mental health spend in Australia and, at time of writing, has about one third of psychiatrist positions unfilled.
Australia’s medical community, with one or two notable exceptions, has rallied around the cause.
But this is not the first time that non-GP specialist doctors have reached breaking point and seen resignation as the only way forward.
Here’s the (abridged and incomplete) version of three of those times.
Queensland’s near miss
When: 2014, Queensland.
Who: Senior Medical Officers.
What happened: Queensland Health attempted to move its senior specialists from award and enterprise-based agreements on to contracts instead.
The contracts, at least in their initial form, would have taken away unfair dismissal protections and potentially required doctors to take direction on appropriate medical care from hospital administrators.
While there was talk of a mass resignation at the time, none eventuated.
Tensions between doctors and the Liberal National Party state government, however, escalated to the point where then-Premier Campbell Newman told parliament that he was prepared to simply replace Queensland’s doctors with overseas-trained specialists.
“If people do choose to resign, we will have in place arrangements to replace those people and if we have to replace people from interstate or overseas … we shall do that,” he said, according to SBS News.
“We will give anybody who wants to work in our public health system, which will be the best in Australia, the opportunity to do that.”
During the dispute, Queensland Health Director-General Ian Maynard was presented with a pineapple by doctors, an apparent reference to the Kangaroo Point hotel where a group of dissenting doctors usually met.
It was resolved just weeks after the pineapple incident, with new contracts negotiated by the AMA, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation and a Senior Medical Officer taskforce.
Related
South Australian pay dispute
When: 2008, South Australia.
Who: Emergency doctors and surgeons.
What happened: About 150 doctors – mostly working in emergency medicine – in South Australia handed in their resignations in mid-June 2008 following a breakdown in pay and conditions negotiations.
The state was offering a pay rise of $43,000, about $70,000 less than doctors were asking for.
While it started with emergency doctors, surgeons were also among those who resigned.
The doctors ultimately withdrew their resignations, accepting a final pay offer from the state.
The Great Doctor’s Dispute of 1984
When: 1984, New South Wales.
Who: Orthopaedic surgeons.
What happened: Amid the tension of the Medicare roll out, the NSW government introduced an amendment act which gave the state new powers to regulate the maximum fees to be charged to private patients in public hospitals.
On 26 May 1984, 70 orthopaedic surgeons, led by Dr Bruce Shepherd, handed in their resignations.
Plastic surgeons and ophthalmologists followed suit.
In an attempt to head off further resignations, the NSW government introduced legislation in June 1984 that would disqualify any resigning visiting medical officer from any further appointment for seven years.
Like the Newman government would threaten to do 30 years later, NSW Health began to explore the possibility of bringing in overseas-trained doctors to fill gaps.
This did not go over well.
The AMA NSW branch resolved to withdraw all but emergency services from NSW public hospitals.
Both parties agreed to a resolution eventually, but not until April the following year.
