No permanent psychiatrists left in Canberra Hospital's mental health ward

The union says there should be seven permanent psychiatrists on the ward, but only temporary staff remain after the last permanent employee recently resigned.

But ACT Health said there was still one permanent psychiatrist working on the ward, with four other positions being filled by locum psychiatrists.

Australian Salaried Medical Officers' Federation ACT secretary Stephen Crook said ongoing issues around morale and the attractiveness of the positions compared to other states and facilities was making it harder to recruit specialists.

He said the potential difficulties of working in the acute mental health unit presented extra barriers in recruitment, with attractive working conditions and a positive culture the only way to retain staff.

"It takes them up to eight months to replace a specialist with the processes they have in place for recruitment," he said.

"Locums do a great job but it doesn't come with the same stability of permanent staff for the clients and treatment plans.

" At The Canberra Hospital TCH there should be an ECT service which is a recognised practice for particular mental health patients and this continues to be placed on the back burner which will reduce lengths of stay and assist with treatment."

A spokeswoman for ACT Health said the ward was adequately staffed.

"As at 14 February 2018, there are 11 FTE medical staff overseeing patients admitted to the unit," she said.

"This has increased from 8.5 FTE in July 2017.

"Two senior registrars are also expected to receive their fellowship (Staff Specialist positions in adult general psychiatry) in mid-March 2018 and will commence work in the AMHU," she said.

She said there was a nation-wide shortage of psychiatrists in public and private mental health services.

"Noting shortages across jurisdictions, this is a challenge that ACT Health has been, and continues to be, proactive in seeking to address," the spokeswoman said.

"As part of this, ACT Health is continuing to undertake national and international recruitment activity to fill vacant positions."

It comes amid the union's broader concerns around ACT Health's ability to attract permanent specialists and issues of staff morale.

The Canberra Times last week revealed patients were waiting years just to see specialists, with the secret waiting list masking the true toll of the public elective surgery wait times.

Mr Crook claimed specialists and other health professionals were frustrated by the layers of bureaucracy in ACT's public health system.

He said there was a culture of gagging staff who chose to speak out or raise concerns.

"To try to get anything changed or done is a major exercise," Mr Crook said.

"There are too many layer of bureaucracy to deal with."

Mr Crook said the inability to back fill positions in a timely manner put increased pressure on staff.

"ACT Health have not been able to back fill positions in a timely manner," he said.

"This has resulted in ACT Health now having staff with excessive leave balances which compounds morale and patient care by clinics being cancelled when staff have to take leave.

" The requirement for staff to travel between centres to run clinics is further reducing time available to see clients thus potentially extending the appointment times and loss of referrals and bookings due to the poor planning processes."

He said there were also longstanding issues around entitlements and enterprise agreements that were also affecting morale.