00:00A mental health system on the verge of collapse.
00:05There is a lot of anxiety for their patients.
00:07There's a lot of grief associated with this decision.
00:10More than 200 public psychiatrists in New South Wales
00:13are set to resign from next week
00:15after a 15-month stalemate with the state government over pay.
00:19They've allowed it to go from bad to worse,
00:22from worse to a crisis,
00:24and from now a crisis to a disaster.
00:27The state government has offered a 10.5% pay increase
00:30for hospital staff specialists over three years.
00:33Psychiatrists are calling for 25%.
00:36There will be impacts. Things might be a little bit slow.
00:39It might be a bit challenging for a few weeks.
00:42Your mental health is our top priority.
00:44We have been thinking of the patients.
00:47We've been thinking the whole time
00:49and we're worried about what's going to happen.
00:51Public psychiatrists argue they're being paid up to 30% less
00:54than some of their interstate counterparts
00:56and more needs to be done to recruit and retain staff.
00:59According to the peak body for psychiatry,
01:02only 295 of the 416 full-time staff specialist positions
01:07in New South Wales Health are filled,
01:09with more than 200 now handing in their resignation.
01:12The emergency department will relatively quickly
01:15fill up with people with mental health needs.
01:18So people with heart attacks, people with broken legs
01:21won't be able to get in.
01:24Negotiations will continue tomorrow.
01:27I don't feel as though we have exhausted dialogue.
01:30I don't feel as though the opportunity for back and forth is over.
01:34In the meantime, locums are being hired
01:36to try to keep the system functioning.
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