Marie Bismark with a sign she created for a national senior doctors and dentists strike. Photo / David haxton
Marie Bismark with a sign she created for a national senior doctors and dentists strike. Photo / David haxton
It’s no wonder Professor Marie Bismark is feeling tired and stressed.
She is supposed to be among a team of doctors at Kāpiti Mental Health Clinic but is now the only one.
Bismark was one of thousands of senior doctors and dentists, employed by Te Whatu Ora — Health New Zealand, who went on strike for two hours today.
The senior doctors and dentists, who are members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, were seeking pay increases in line with the Consumer Price Index.
But for Bismark, it wasn’t only about the money, it was about staffing shortages in New Zealand.
Bismark moved from Australia, where she worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, about a year ago to take up the job as a consultant psychiatrist at the Paraparaumu-based Kāpiti Mental Health Clinic (KMHS).
There are supposed to be three doctors working at KMHS but for the last three months there has only been one — Bismark — as others had gone overseas or into private practice.
She knew she would have to take a big pay cut when she came back to New Zealand, principally to be closer to family, but didn’t expect to be covering three jobs.
“It’s really hard because we cover an area of 60,000 people which is the whole of the Kāpiti Coast.”
Marie Bismark is the only psychiatrist in Kāpiti. Photo / David Haxton
Bismark works in the clinic two days a week.
“Trying to provide mental health care, to so many people, on two days a week, as the only doctor is really unsafe and really unfair on the community.
“It’s also really hard on the nurses who work here because on days when they’ve got no doctor means there’s no one to do prescriptions, Mental Health Act assessments, and sometimes they’re life-threatening situations that people present with.
“And sometimes patients have to travel to Wellington and sit in the emergency department for hours because there’s no psychiatrist on the coast.”
I can’t bear to leave but it’s just not sustainable.
Te Whatu Ora is advertising for the roles but Bismark feels the ads are too generic and need to communicate “all the things that are wonderful about living on the Kāpiti Coast”.
“They try and advertise but across the Wellington region, 28 per cent of the psychiatrist jobs are vacant. It’s pretty bad. And we have more doctors retiring than we have coming into training.”
She’s in regular contact with Te Whatu Ora about the situation but has heard the clinic wasn’t the worst off — there were other clinics with no doctor.
“That’s quite hard to hear.”
The clinic was hopeful of getting another doctor later in the year but that’s more time Bismark will be on her own, and she was already “exhausted”.
“I’m hanging in here. My family plead with me to resign because they’re so worried about the toll it’s taking on me trying to do three people’s jobs.”
She’s often at work at 8pm or 9pm, because of the amount of work, and only leaves when the security guard locks up for the night.
Despite the pressure, and regular offers to go back to Melbourne to do highly paid locum work, Bismark doesn’t want to leave the clinic with no psychiatrist.
“I feel really committed to the community.
“Lots of the patients have had multiple changes of doctor over the years they’ve been here and it’s so important for people to know and trust their psychiatrist.
“If people can’t get in to see us, then things get worse, and they end up in a crisis situation, whereas we would much rather be doing early intervention.
“I can’t bear to leave but it’s just not sustainable.”
Bismark said, on a good day, being a psychiatrist was “the best job in the world.
“If we have someone who is coming to us with psychosis, and we can support them to get well in their community and help them get back to work, and live well with their illness, that’s the best feeling in the world.
