A New South Wales psychiatrist who was asked to take on the workload of two public hospitals quit because the amount of work was “untenable” and compromised patient safety, a court has heard.
Dr Suzanna Goodison appeared as a witness for the doctors union, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (Asmof), on day two of its arbitration with NSW Health in the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) court in Sydney. Asmof is seeking a special levy to increase its members’ pay by 25% to stem the flow of specialist doctors leaving the public system.
Goodison told the court her workload as a consultant liaison psychiatrist at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital – where she advised on psychiatric care of patients in all wards – significantly increased between February and August 2024.
On top of this, Goodison said her department was then asked by the directors of clinical and mental health services within the Sydney local health district (LHD) to cover consultant liaison services at Concord hospital.
The new arrangement was “extremely stressful”, she said, as covering two hospitals caused “substantial problems” when it came to fulfilling duties around the safety and quality of care of patients, as well as training junior doctors.
Goodison told the court she had already resigned from a previous position at Sydney LHD’s perinatal psychiatry service for the same reasons.
Goodison said she and her colleagues in the consultant liaison psychiatry department had tried to escalate the matter but they had received “unsatisfactory answers back from mental health executive”. So she then sought advice from her union, Asmof.
“No one wants to walk away from their job like I have,” Goodison said. “I loved my job. It was an incredibly difficult decision [but] I made the decision to resign because it was untenable to continue.”
Since her resignation, Goodison said her income had increased fourfold. She was now conducting medical-legal work and working as a visiting medical officer in two hospitals.
Asked by the NSW Health barrister, Ian Neil SC, why her resignation letter was written in the “same terms” as other resigning staff specialists, Goodison said the letter had been shared among psychiatric co-workers as it was a “good way to express how I was feeling and how other colleagues were feeling”.
Neil raised the similarity of resignation letters among psychiatrist witnesses several times in court on Tuesday.
The Asmof executive director, Andrew Holland, also gave evidence for the union on Tuesday, saying he “totally” disagreed with Neil’s question of whether the union had organised the psychiatrists’ mass resignations.
Holland said it was “clear members had been pushed to crisis”. He said the union had a role to provide guidance but it was always “members [who] were leading the conversation”.
In January, 206 psychiatrists in NSW threatened to resign: 62 have resigned, while others await the IRC outcome. Barristers for NSW Health have pursued a line of questioning of Asmof witnesses suggesting the mass resignations were orchestrated by the union.
Dr Prachi Brahmbhatt, giving evidence for Asmof, was also questioned by Neil, rejecting his assertion that psychiatrists used the “same letter” to resign in order to exert pressure on the NSW government. Brahmbhatt resigned as a psychiatrist from Sutherland hospital.
She said she resigned because she could no longer uphold doctors’ Hippocratic oath to do no harm.
“I could no longer be complicit in a system that was actively harming my patients and colleagues,” Brahmbhatt said. “I should have perhaps resigned a lot earlier.”
Dr Ian Korbel, another psychiatrist appearing as a witness for Asmof, said when resignations were being discussed amongst psychiatrists there was uncertainty how many would follow through on the action.
“I didn’t think it should be a bluff,” Korbel said. “If we believe[d] the system was failing we should actually resign.”
The hearing, which is scheduled to run until Friday, continues.
