Follow-Up: There is still a massive Australian Psychiatrist shortage

Over a year ago now we wrote a feature on the increasing demand for locum psychiatrists across Australia. At the time, inner regional and remote areas only had 5.6 full-time psychiatrists per every 100,000 people with extremely remote areas having 2.1 per every 100,000. For some perspective: The World Health Organisation recommends there should be 10 psychiatrists per 100,000 population.

Fast forward to 2018 and the situation remains largely the same.

The lack of available psychiatrists in remote and regional areas across Australia is contributing considerably to the mental health crisis in these regions and it’s costing residents dearly.

Patients spent up to six days waiting in Royal Hobart Hospital ED for psych bed, stats show https://t.co/n6WgKZGcNf via @abcnews #politas

— Emily Street (@EmilyHStreet) July 9, 2018

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According to a recent report by ABC News, mental health patient wait times in Tasmania’s emergency departments are the worst they’ve been in 20 years. A separate report by ABC found that some private practices in Canberra are referring as many as six patients each week to Sydney to seek treatment.

What can we do to solve the problem?

So what can we do to start populating these areas with more locum and permanent psychiatrists?

For starters, we need to invest more resources into creating safe and appealing environments for practitioners in country psychiatric clinics. While rural areas tend to attract loads of trainees, once qualification are achieved, these professionals tend to jump ship due to workloads and poor facilities, explains Dr Richard Newton, chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Victoria branch in an interview with the Bendigo Advertiser.

“One of the common reports we hear from rural and regional areas is that once people achieve their qualification, then they tend to move out of those services,” Dr. Newton explains.

“It’s not just about attracting them to work there, it’s also about retaining them and providing them with the kind of conditions and support that they need to stay there and do their job.”

Incentivising practitioners to work in these areas whether on a fixed-term or permanent basis also has the potential to populate rural and regional facilities in a more meaningful way. With a financial upside to moving into these areas more professionals may explore the option of working in these under resourced areas.