Health NZ accused of cherry-picking psychiatry numbers in mental health plan

Tuesday, 8 October 2024

What looks like a large increase in training places is actually only about 6 per year in real terms.

The Government’s plan to boost psychiatry training places to 50 each year is based on half-baked figures that make the plan look better than it is, a mental health sector leader says.

“It’s nowhere near what we need … what is being offered currently is inevitably going to lead to a decline in the number of psychiatrists over a decade,” national chairperson of the College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) Dr Hiran Thabrew said.

In a long-awaited mental health workforce plan quietly released a fortnight ago, Health NZ–Te Whatu Ora said it was increasing the number of Year 1 psychiatry registrar training places it offers annually “from around 33 in 2024 to 50 from 2025 onwards”.

These registrars are qualified doctors working towards becoming specialist psychiatrists, who can evaluate and diagnose disorders such as bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders and schizophrenia.

Child psychiatrist and paediatrician Dr Hiran Thabrew.

But what looked like 17 extra places a year was more like six, Thabrew said, because Health NZ used a figure that was taken from partway through the academic year.

Health NZ said the baseline number came from the college itself.

“In July 2024 there were 33 of these registrars employed,” chief people officer Andrew Slater said.

Slater said this was a “significant increase to baseline capacity and aims to address the variance in annual training numbers seen in recent years”.

Thabrew said the number was correct – between February and July 2024 there were 33 trainees – but at least six more had been accepted since.

“It's not the total for the year, and it's certainly not reflective of the last few years.”

Thabrew said Health NZ should have used 44 as a baseline, which was the annual average in trainee numbers over the four years between 2020 and 2023. This would have lifted trainee numbers to 66 each year, which is what the college wants.

Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey’s office deflected most questions back to Health NZ, saying it is the agency’s plan.

These projections were communicated to Health NZ at the time and over the course of the past year, Thabrew said.

Slater said he understood more trainees had started with Health NZ, but “we were unable to formally confirm these training roles before the plan’s finalisation”.

There was no shortage of people wanting to enter the psychiatry profession and the demand for their skills was certainly there in the community, said Thabrew, who also works a children’s psychiatrist.

“

We need solutions that actually match the scale of the crisis.

“We know that if we don't increase training now while we've got a pool of supervisors, we won't have the capacity to train more people in five to 10 years time.”

When approached with questions, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey’s office said the plan belonged to Health NZ.

When The Post asked Doocey’s office if he would commit to increasing psychiatry training places by 13 in real terms, as was National’s election promise, his office stood by the line that the increase was 17 more registrars in 2025 than were employed in mid-2024.

Doocey was on personal leave and not available for an interview, his office said.