NSW Mental Health Minister to meet doctors

Natasha May

The NSW Mental Health Minister will meet with psychiatrist representatives today as more than half of the state's professional mental health doctors resign, taking effect next week.

There are 443 psychiatrist positions in NSW Health, 30%-40% of which are already vacant, and at least 205 positions will be resigned from January 21.

The doctors are resigning because they say they can no longer work in an understaffed mental health system and they need higher wages and better conditions as in other states to retain more staff, but the government says they Their request for 25 doctors cannot be agreed to. % salary increase.

minister of mental health, Ross Jacksonshe said she hoped today's meeting with doctors' unions, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers' Federation (Asmof) and the NSW branch of psychiatrists' peak body, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, would provide "an opportunity ". Have a discussion and maybe an opportunity for a way forward. "

During Asimov's press conference Wednesday, an emergency physician said they stood with their psychiatrist colleagues because the state's mental health services are "on the brink of collapse and this is no longer a crisis." .

PhD trainee in psychiatry James Lead It said "moral harm" was being caused to doctors in public hospitals by being physically unable to provide care for mental health patients. "The system forces us to compromise in ways we don't want to."

As people start planning their journeys - or maybe just starting to plan a day working from home - here's our overnight report on the chaos on Sydney's trains.

Sydney trains urged to postpone 'non-essential travel'

Our reporter Mostafa Rachwani is traveling and will bring us some updates on the train situation soon.

But in the meantime, here's the statement Sydney Trains released last night warning of service disruptions today.

All suburban and intercity trains will return to their depots by midnight to help Sydney trains cope with the ongoing serious impact of today's strike, as bad weather tonight also causes more service disruptions across the network.

This decision has been made to assist the return of the fleet as much as possible and be ready for departure from their stableyards on Thursday morning.

This means train services will gradually reduce frequency from around 9pm to ensure all trains arrive before the last service, which usually ends at 1am each weekday.

Sydney trains are Another day of severe network downgrades is expected starting early Thursday Passengers will once again face long delays, service cancellations and huge service gaps due to more than 350 notified bans.

Passengers should also be aware that tonight's severe storms have caused downed overhead power lines at Normanhurst and Bell, as well as power outages in Lidcombe, Cabramatta and Flemington, and multiple signals at Shell Harbor Interchange/ Track failures and flooding in town halls have had varying impacts on services.

As of 7.30pm on Wednesday, 1,500 trains - about 40 per cent of all Sydney trains timetable trains - had been canceled due to strike action.

With more than 350 work bans in place across the network as part of the United Rail Union strike action, passengers are urged to postpone non-essential journeys, use alternative modes of public transport and plan ahead and live by checking Transportnsw.info for the latest updates Travel apps.

Where possible, NSW TrainLink will contact passengers on their booking via text message to alert them of changes to their travel arrangements.

Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink again apologize to passengers for the disruption caused and thank staff at the Rail Operations Center and across the network for their understanding in minimizing the impact of this difficult industrial period.

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I am Martin Farrell Previously there were some popular overnight stories Emily Wind It will appear soon.

Chaos on Sydney's train network caused by yesterday's strike is expected to worsen today as a standoff between rail unions and the NSW government over a new pay deal continues. Train bosses warned passengers last night that today would be "another day of severe degradation on the network", "resulting in long delays, service cancellations and huge service gaps due to more than 350 bans notified".

Sydney Trains warned that last night's severe storms across greater Sydney would only make matters worse, with flooding lashing City Hall station concourses, downing trees on the line and causing power outages. We'll have updates on trains and storm damage soon.

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