Psychologists employed by district health boards (DHBs) say their workforce is in crisis, and they've been taking partial strike action out of desperation.
Workers say some patients are waiting up to a year for their services because psychologists are leaving DHBs for better pay.
"Psychologists in DHBs earn about 15 to 20 percent less than psychologists in other Government departments like Corrections, and earn far less than psychologists that work for ACC or private practice," says clinical psychologist Dr Emma Edwards.
Dr Edwards and Dr Chris Murray are clinical psychologists working in adult mental health at DHBs.
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They say there's a huge hole in their workforce because psychologists are leaving for better paying positions.
"At the moment we have about a 34 percent vacancy rate, and so that's around a third of our workforce," says Dr Murray.
The staff shortage means huge caseloads, and for some patients a waitlist of up to 12 months.
"We're hemorrhaging psychologists actually," says Dr Edwards.
Currently 600 DHB psychologists who have been taking partial-strike action are voting on a new offer of a 6.3 percent pay increase over 18 months and the establishment of a working group involving the Ministry of Health to address their concerns.
But their union, APEX, says that won't close the pay gap, and they want DHBs to commit to employing one psychologist for every 5000 people living in a DHB area.
The DHBs responded by saying the current offer does reflect the need for more psychologists and they're waiting for APEX to accept their offer.
"The conditions for psychologists in the DHBs at the moment are just not sustainable," says Dr Murray.
Voting on the latest offer closes on Tuesday.
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