Last chance to stop psychiatrists' walkout

THE PEAK body for psychiatrists in Australia has weighed into an industrial dispute in South Australia, warning that the state's mental health system will be "irreversibly damaged" if psychiatrists follow through with a threat to resign en-masse.

THE PEAK body for psychiatrists in Australia has weighed into an industrial dispute in South Australia, warning that the state's mental health system will be "irreversibly damaged" if psychiatrists follow through with a threat to resign en-masse.

The warning came as psychiatrists prepared for a meeting this morning that could prove the last real chance to avert a full-scale walkout over staffing levels and pay demands, leaving the public mental health sector short of 80per cent of its specialists.

The chair of the state branch of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, James Hundertmark, said the professional body would seek to broker a settlement with the state Government before the mass resignation of public sector psychiatrists came into force.

There were 210 registered psychiatrists in South Australia but the 44 who had given notice of quitting - effective next Monday - represented the bulk of those working in the public sector.

Public hospitals would be immediately affected by the move, because psychiatrists had the responsibility of sectioning mental health patients considered at risk of self-harm or of harming others.

"It will be appalling if these experienced doctors leave the public system," Dr Hundertmark said. "This would cause irreversible damage to the health system."

Australian Medical Association state president Peter Ford suggested yesterday the South Australian Government was drafting emergency legislation to cover the threatened walkout.

But a spokesman for state Assistant Health Minister Gail Gago would say only that the Government would consider its options if arbitration failed.

A hearing before the commission ended last night without achieving major progress.

The state's 60 specialist psychiatrists are paid between $130,000 and $161,000. But Andrew Murray, from the Salaried Medical Officers Association, said the Government should adopt an "attraction and retention loading" of 40 per cent on current salaries, to achieve the staff increases, in line with loadings for other specialists.